Planet Threat
by Norwesterner
Summary: How do two sides, especially two individuals who suffered tragic loss at the hands of the other's side, find a reason and way to go on? A story inspired by the unknown gem of a sci-fi CGI film, 'Battle for Terra'. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

_Once in a while, you come across a film on disc or TV, and go, "I can't believe I missed that in theatres." BATTLE FOR TERRA has become such a film for me._

_The human CGI characters can seem a little basic in style (they're perhaps a nice 'tip of the hat' though to the old Gerry Anderson THUNDERBIRDS TV series), but the rest of the characters, and especially the settings, are detailed and very realistic. The story's premise takes the familiar sci-fi genre of alien invasion, turning it around, but in a way nicely different from AVATAR which to me is more of a 'space western', and doing what science fiction does best—getting us to look at serious questions of life from a different perspective through the metaphor of different worlds. Considering BATTLE FOR TERRA was made independently of a major studio and for less than one-twentieth the budget for a typical CGI film, the results are incredible. And with basically zero promotion when it came out on May 1, 2009, this PG-rated film deserves much better than it got in theatres. If a preview of it hadn't been included on another DVD I recently bought from Lions Gate Films (and which, if you read the first chapter of this story carefully, you might be able to figure out which other DVD that is), I still wouldn't know about it._

_I would naturally recommend you see BATTLE FOR TERRA, now out on disc, before reading this story. But I realize you might want to read this story before deciding to shell out to rent or get it this under-exposed gem of science fiction and fantasy. So I've found myself having to tread a fine line here between continuing the film's story and portraying the atmosphere of it that captured me so much, without giving away too much of the film itself, so that you can enjoy it like I have. So this time, about the only spoilers revolve around the main motivations for, and aftermath of, the battle, with what the main film characters do or what happens to them in the movie being carefully minimized or avoided by focusing the story around my own characters instead._

_The question for me however that the film left unanswered, was how do two peoples, two species, both of whom have suffered, with one at the hands of the other, learn to get along together after a conflict? And in particular, how do two individuals from opposite sides, both of whom have suffered tragic loss due to actions of the other's side, find what they need to even go on?_

_So, through the imagination and work of writer/director Aristomenis Tsirbas (who also single-handedly created the concept, character and production designs, storyboards, majority of the CGI models, and some eighty percent of the rough or 'animatics' animation that became the film . . . a one-man version of Pixar), with concepts, characters and settings owned by Terra Productions LLC and Roadside Attractions LLC, I invite you to experience how loss can become transformed into something that makes the journey of life worthwhile._

— _Norwesterner_

* * *

"KAILA!" I yelled as I beat my fists against the door that swung shut, separating us.

Pulled through a failed window. That's how my wife had died . . . in space. The irony is we had almost made it. We could see the final destination that had been promised to us for generations. Now, she had been killed when debris from our own ship had hit a viewport window on a passageway, shattering it. My wife ended up being listed as a battle casualty, the third human one in the Battle for Terra, as the debris was caused by a young Terrian who made an escape in one of our fighters as she blasted her way out of a fighter dock.

I was Second Engineer on what was simply called 'The Ark', a massive interstellar life raft that was carrying the last of humanity. It was part space station and part starship, being comprised of eleven rings, the largest up to three hundred metres in diameter. Each ring was made up of mostly square modules connected by tubular passageways. Together they rotated in opposite directions along a central hub that was over five hundred metres in length, to both simulate earth gravity while also allowing the ship to maintain a stable course through space. From a distance, it looked like a massive, contra-rotating oval beehive.

I, and everyone I knew, was born on the ship. We were supposed to be the final link in a multi-generational trek from an Earth that had been laid waste in a terrible interplanetary war of with our former colonies on the terraformed planets of Venus and Mars. Like most all colonies throughout recorded history, they got tired of existing to service the resource needs of another nation and people. In this case, the colonial overlords the Venusian and Martian colonies were rebelling against were us—an over-consumptive population on Earth that had depleted our own planet's resources some 200 years earlier. Our astronomers however had identified a planet we had called Terra as the nearest potential life-sustaining planet in another star system that we could terraform into a new earth. Hopefully this time, humanity would get living on a planet right.

Now, we were there. But we found the planet was already inhabited with life that depended on an atmosphere that was richer in hydrogen, helium and methane than Earth had been, but with much less oxygen. While we could stand on the planet's surface, even walk around with ease, we couldn't breathe its air. We found that our air was also poisonous to the life forms our scout fighters had captured with force fields and brought back upon our arrival in orbit around Terra. When some of the specimens were brought back wearing clothes that were multi-colored bodysuits over their floating, tadpole-like forms, carrying objects and tools, even a few sitting in what appeared to be some kind of hover chairs—we discovered that the planet also unfortunately already had a civilization. While it apparently was not quite as advanced as ours, they seemed to have found ways of living both peacefully and in remarkable harmony with their world. The hover chair I was ordered to examine and analyze was powered by a remarkably simple system that seemed to generate and harness a form of bio-electricity to power its propellers and fans from what was basically a hydrogen and methane-powered fuel cell. Ingenious, and completely sustainable given their atmosphere. These floating beings, while scared, had seemed to be remarkably curious about us initially.

But with our ship literally falling apart around us in space from age and use, a mania to take over that planet and terraform it into a new earth, no matter what, had overtaken a lot of us on the Ark. With our medical care having been largely turned over to robots long ago that were now supervised and assisted by Earth Force military personnel, who were distinguished by the tan uniforms and caps we all wore, the clothed beings were treated as things, even pests, rather than persons. They were in the way between us and the planet we needed to take over in order to survive. I was ashamed, even guilt-ridden, as I witnessed their treatment at the hands of our medical robots while I worked on analyzing that hover chair with an assistant. It was the subject of the last conversation I'd had with my wife, before she returned to supervise her staff and robots in the hydroponics modules that generated our plant life and vegetables.

"They're beings!" she said. "Look into their large eyes! You can see fear, tranquility, curiosity . . . every feeling we have!"

"I know!" I snapped looking down at the small dining table in our quarters while we shared a quick dinner before we each had to go on duty again as things were heating up and tensions mounting all over the ship.

"Then do something about it!" she challenged. "You're one of the most senior officers onboard! Speak up!"

"The chain of command has changed," I sighed. "The final decision has been made. They're taking over the planet, no matter what now. I can't stop it."

"Then I don't want to live on such a world," she quietly but angrily said as she got up and left our quarters in her civilian blue work suit, her brown hair tied back in its usual ponytail behind her head, turning down the passageway to return to her work. Married to her fifteen years but with no kids, Kaila was my conscience, in the best way I could ask for. She had always been that. She knew I'd soon follow her, we'd make up, and then decide to do the right thing, something, together. I was on my way to her, walking along the upwardly curving passages around the edge of A Ring between modules, when alarms sounded and passageway airlocks automatically sealed in front of me. Her choice came true . . . and I never got to make up with her.

The worst part was that through an airlock door viewport, I saw Kaila get pulled through that failed window . . . but she never saw me.

— — — — —

Now a day later, I was numb beyond words, and everything around me on the ship was in chaos. I didn't know what was going on, except that our Chief Engineer, my boss, had gone down with the Terraformer along with a good portion of our Engineering staff and our Earth Force commanding officer. The first I heard about it all was when I was summoned by name to the Council Chamber as part of the ship-wide broadcast informing all of us that President Chen and the Council were once again in charge onboard the Ark.

"Meyers, we have three weeks of oxygen left," I was told by President Chen personally on my arrival in the chamber, " . . . and that's it." Combined with the grave look on his dark brown face, no further words needed to be said. I knew what had happened. We had come all this way in hope and expectation; but now, we weren't taking over the planet.

"I'll prepare the final sleep protocol," I somberly replied. "Everyone will die comfortably. They'll just go to sleep. It will be ready for your or the council's order well before then."

"Mister President," Councilmember Maria Montez interrupted. She was a dark-haired, attractive, young military member of the council, who was nonetheless one of its most consistently outspoken advocates for peaceful solutions. "We're getting a message from one of our fighters. A Terrian delegation has visually hailed them and is now coming to us with the pilot."

"Very well," President Chen said, before turning back to me. "Meyers, you're Chief Engineer now. And since you're also the senior remaining Earth Force officer onboard, I'm making you Commander of the Ark as well. You report directly to me as Commander-in-Chief. Go ahead and make preparations for the protocol for now, but be prepared for a change of orders, and priorities."

"Yes, Mister President," I replied, saluting him as a visible sign to all around me that unlike my immediate predecessor, I respected civilian authority. That I did not receive a concurrent promotion in rank to General with my new positions also signaled that the civilians wanted to maintain more control now over Earth Force as well. But I didn't know what to think as I then turned to leave the chamber, grabbing my handheld commlink unit from my belt under my uniform tunic and calling for the Duty Engineer.

"Rogerson, Duty Engineer," the reply came.

"This is Meyers," I replied. "By order of President Chen and the Council, I am now both Chief Engineer and Ark Commander. Begin preparations for General Order Omega. The final command sequence will come from myself and the Council President when it's time."

"Yes . . . sir," the Duty Engineer replied very slowly.

"Mike," I added, knowing my fellow engineer well, " . . . there's hope yet. We're also ordered to standby for a change of priorities though. A delegation from the planet is coming onboard. Looks like there may yet be talks toward something. But keep that under your hat for now. Let's just get on with our job of keeping everyone as comfortable as possible . . . no matter what. Gotta go," I said as my commlink beeped. "Another call is coming in."

"Thanks for that, Chief," I heard as I clicked over to the other call.

"Commander Meyers here," I now replied to the other caller, using my other new title.

"This is Chen again," the unit's speaker now conveyed. "As Ark Commander now, would you join me at Fighter Portal A-Seven to welcome our guests onboard?"

"Yes sir, Portal A-Seven. On my way, Meyers out," I replied as my deputy Flight and Deck officers now both found me together in one of the Ark's semi-rusted tubular corridors. "Lady and Gentleman," I said since I didn't know these two very well, "as you likely know, I've just been made the new Ark Commander. This way now. Follow me."

Soon, I met up with President Chen again, who was waiting at the portal for its door to open once the fighter had docked with it inside the larger bay.

"John," the president now called me by my first name, " . . . our condolences on the loss of your wife. I'm sorry."

"Thank you, sir," I replied quietly, not really wanting to be reminded of that as I was being hit with so much at the moment.

I looked through the rounded door's viewport to see the arriving Plus-wing fighter now being automatically captured and brought through the landing bay in top and bottom slots running across the bay among retracted service lifts, to dock with the portal we were standing at. The portal door then swung open as the craft's cockpit hatch also rolled open upwards to reveal the craft's occupants.

In addition to the seated pilot, two Terrians were now floating, one on either side of him. Both were wearing respirators to breathe while in our atmosphere. One appeared to be older and dressed in an important-looking red and white robe and hat of some kind, while the other appeared to be somewhat younger and dressed far simpler in some kind of two-tone green close-fitting bodysuit. Even looking at them, while somewhat paler in skin tone than any of us, they were peaceful, wise, even beautiful and ethereal beings. They just flowed from their large, gentle eyes and round heads that had round, tail-like appendages at the back, then down their small necks and gently-curved and clothed bodies that had two arms with three-fingered hands at the ends. Their bodies ended in flat, almost tadpole-like tails that propelled them when they moved. From the ones I'd seen our medical robots examine, when stationary the Terrians seemed to be able to either float vertically, or sit or lie on surfaces at will.

"Greetings," the younger Terrian now said, in clear English with a female voice to my surprise. "I am Mala, and I will translate for Elder Doron."

"I am President Chen," my superior said next to me as he extended his hand in greeting. Elder Doron floated forward to accept his handshake. "First, please know, both of you, that I and the Council opposed what has taken place between our peoples. Another of us took control without authority, and went down with the Terraformer and our forces. We deeply regret what happened."

Mala translated the president's words for her elder. The elder briefly spoke back in their language.

"Elder Doron says we understand, and forgive," Mala now conveyed to the collective surprise, almost shock of both Chen and myself. "We know you now have little time or resources left here. We are already preparing interim habitable spaces for your people, and are prepared to start work on a larger habitat for you all as quickly as possible. We are also ready to show your fliers where to land on our world, and begin accepting at least a few of your people . . . if you pledge peace with us now, and to cooperate with us as equals."

Not wanting to make his reply alone, Chen looked at some of the other council members gathered around him. Every one of them was nodding yes, some with tears of amazement and gratitude in their eyes. "It will be peace, and cooperation, always now between us," the president replied as he extended his hand again to seal the understanding. "We are very grateful," he added. Doron just looked calmly at him as he accepted Chen's hand. "Commander," the president continued before he had even let go of Doron's three-fingered hand, "cancel General Order Omega, and execute General Order Alpha, Phase One."

"Yes sir," I said with a degree of quiet relief as I now picked up my commlink. "Engineering, this is Meyers," I said without waiting for a reply, "stand down on Omega. Repeat, stand down on Omega. Begin execution of Alpha, Phase One. Assign all available Engineering personnel and robots to Craft Support and commence conversion of all bombers and fighters to general shuttles."

"Yes Chief!" came the now enthusiastic reply, accompanied by a few cheers in the background via my commlink's speaker.

"Meyers out. Flight Officer," I now said, clicking off my commlink and turning to one of my deputies, "pick some pilots to fly fighters and accompany this one back down to scope out the designated landing sites. Deck Officer," I continued, turning to another, "start prioritizing and assembling personnel and cargo loads to be ready to go as soon as our Terrian hosts authorize, and shuttles are available. Let's get going."

"Yes sir!" my deputy officers both gladly replied around me as they departed, picking up their own commlinks as they began to coordinate the raft of details it would take to make everything happen now.

"Deck Officer," I added, not knowing his name yet, stopping him and walking to meeting him partway down the corridor, "let's also prepare the remaining specimens in our labs for respectful return to the Terrians. And do not destroy any records of what was done to them. I will hold you personally responsible for the safekeeping of both those records, and those remains, now that you've heard this order."

"Sir?" he questioned.

"We may have some things to atone for, Major," I said. "But on my watch, we're going to do things right from here on, and we're not going to hide anything, understood?"

"Yes sir," he now replied reluctantly but clearly, saluting me before turning to execute my commands.

_That's for you, Kaila,_ I thought quietly to her, wiping a tear from my eye, as I returned to Chen and our Terrian guests at the portal.

"Pilot," I then said to the man who had just flown the Terrians to us, "can you lead our first contingent back down?"

"It's Lieutenant Stewart Stanton, sir," he replied. "But yes sir, I'm ready to lead them back down under the Terrians' direction here."

"You alright, Lieutenant?" I asked, seeing he looked somewhat depressed, beginning to know myself lately what that felt like.

"Yes sir," he now replied smartly. "I'm fine sir."

I detected Elder Doron now looking at both of us intently. But he said nothing to his interpreter.

"Mister President, Terrian guests," I now said turning to them, "if you'll excuse me, I have a lot to begin overseeing now."

"Yes, of course," Chen excused.

I knew I wasn't going to get much sleep now for the next few days, maybe even the full three weeks until the ship's air ran out. Mourning the woman who had been my wife and best friend would just have to wait.

— — — — —

The next days were a blur. I had no regular or sustained sleep as comm calls kept coming in for me, both through my portable link and on wall intercoms wherever I was at all hours on the Ark. Kaila was the organized one between us, so trying to pack up my quarters during quieter moments . . . I just couldn't bring myself to do it for the longest time. Every time I even touched anything that was hers, I found myself crying.

After a couple of confused first days initially, the transfer of people, goods, machinery, even components and modules of our Ark down to the planet began to proceed smoothly, thanks largely to the division officers under me . . . who hadn't lost their spouses if they had them. I could focus when I had to on details and work, but otherwise it was getting worse inside for me. I managed to mask it well though.

While they could fly on machines both primitive and advanced in their own atmosphere, the Terrians didn't have a space flight capability. So moving our people and materiel on the Ark to the planet was entirely up to us. I would watch at times as dozens of our former fighters and bombers, now stripped down as shuttles would come and go from the Ark around the clock as our ship became barer and barer, and started to fall apart even more with some of its modules being removed and shipped down to Terra as well. It had served its purpose, I consoled myself as I would walk increasingly alone through its corridors, even touching its familiar bulkheads at times.

I got a surprise in my quarters one day though, just as final evacuations to the planet were about to begin.

"Mike . . . and Sharon," I said seeing them unexpectedly in there as I came in. "What are you doing here?"

"The Deck Officer told me he hadn't seen any personal consignments or even shipment requests from you yet," my now Second Engineer and personal friend replied. "My wife and I thought we'd better come check on you. John, it's time for you to pack up here. We don't have much time left onboard."

I just closed my eyes and looked down, barely able to hold it together. Without telling anyone else, I had increasingly thought of just staying . . . the captain going down with his ship. My Kaila wasn't down on the planet anyway. She was out here, somewhere in space now. I had begun entertaining thoughts of just wanting to join her. Just going to sleep after everyone else had left, and not waking up.

"Tell you what," Mike's blonde wife Sharon offered, looking at me. "Mike and I are about all packed out. We're just camping in our empty quarters now. You've got enough to worry about as commander for the entire ship. How about I take care of things here for you? Don't worry, I'll pack up everything, even Kaila's. Looks like we may need things like women's clothing and other personal articles down there anyway for a good while. Would you mind?"

"No," I quietly said, still looking away but trying to smile. I just sighed, deciding to hide what I had been considering, allowing my friends to take that option away from me without their knowing. "She'd want that. I'd just like to keep a few mementos for myself."

"Of course," Sharon replied. "We'll just put it all in containers for now, and you can go through it all after we settle down there."

"Thanks," I said.

Sharon then moved towards me and embraced me. "It'll be okay," she gently assured.

"Please don't," I replied, backing away from her while I could see her husband watching me with concern. "I've gotta stay focused here until we're all off this ship . . . then I'll have time for everything else."

"John, you're human," she said, laying a hand on my shoulder nonetheless. "You need to grieve and heal. You also need companionship in your off-hours. Let Mike and I use your convertible sofa bed in here for now. It will make finishing the move out of our quarters easier, and allow me to work the rest of the time packing your and Kaila's things out of here. It will also give you some friends to be with. Even a commander needs that."

"Alright," I reluctantly agreed, unable to conceal some tears that just stubbornly leaked out of my eyes.

Sharon had Mike and herself moved into my quarters with me within hours. Over the next few days, I just found excuses to largely avoid my quarters, even sleeping in there as little as I could.

"Gotta get back to it, keep going," I'd say, quickly eating minimal portions of the meals Sharon prepared for Mike and I. She was a good cook, even an excellent one. But I found it increasingly hard to avoid crying around them. They brought a feeling of home, real home again, to my quarters. But it was just too painful for me. Sharon was as good as her word though, and soon reduced the warm haven I had known with my wife to a bare shell. As I looked around inside it the final few times, I now regretted my decision to allow Sharon to do that. I had increasingly found myself wanting to die in the haven I had known with Kaila. But that wasn't happening now.

— — — — —

The final moving day had come, but I had yet to land or walk on the Terrian surface, let alone even see it except from the Ark. By videocom, President Chen and the Council had decided to order the Ark moved and parked in a high enough orbit where it would not be a danger to the planet, but still accessible to us in case we had forgotten anything, or realized we needed something else. That job fell to just three people . . . my Second Engineer, his assistant, and myself.

"Ready to engage main engines and thrusters," my friend Mike reported on my commlink as Duty Engineer while I was alone on the Ark's now dimly lit bridge.

"Change in orbit entered," I said back to my commlink as I finished programming the orbital maneuver myself into illuminated buttons on the Navigation panel. "Engaging main engines . . . now."

The Ark lurched to life again around us as the planet and the starfield around it began to shift in front of me outside the viewports. Everything began to shudder.

"How are we doing down there, Mike?" I radioed.

"Systems acceptable," he replied. "Not good, but everything should last for the duration of the burn, and then the braking thrust. Wait . . . we're losing Number Four main engine."

"Compensating trajectory," I quickly replied as I hit more buttons on the Nav panel. "Cutting engines Two and Four to maintain course, and adding a quick burst on the lateral thrusters on Number Four's side . . . phew, we're back on course. The Nav Computer now indicates we'll have to add forty-eight seconds to the burn here though before we coast," I said reading the Navigation Status display. "We can't stress the ship anymore than we have to with starts and stops in her condition."

"Copy that," Mike radioed. "Aren't you glad we're getting off this bucket?"

I said nothing this time, just choosing to focus on the holographic displays around me, making sure everything was as it needed to be.

"John? You there?" my friend asked again.

"I'm here," I replied. "Just tracking everything."

I saw nothing but stars now looking up at the viewports. It was all I had ever known in life. I just accepted the peace and quiet, watching the stars through the viewports and the blinking lights of various panels, as well as listening to the various status sounds and hums of our machinery and the ship itself that I had known for a lifetime. Finally, a computer alert now interrupted my thoughts.

"Stand by for burn termination," I said via my commlink to my Duty Engineer. "Cutting main engines . . . now."

A silence now pervaded the ship as we continued to slowly move further away from the planet into space. I continued to confirm status updates with Mike but little else. After trying to make small talk a couple more times, Mike got the idea I really didn't want to talk. Parking the Ark in the most distant orbit we could around Terra, it now felt like I was burying a second friend in space—the ship itself. As holographic and panel displays around me dutifully reported most all aspects of the ship and its operation, I looked out and saw us pass beyond first the planet's rings of pulverized ice and rock, and then its inner and outer moons. The Ark would become Terra's new third, and by far smallest and most distant moon.

After what seemed like hours, but was really less than one, another computer alert was letting me know we had arrived. "Okay, we're arriving at the new orbit insertion point," I now commed. "Applying reverse braking thrust." The ship now shuddered even worse as a couple of damage alarms went off around me.

"Lost another module, even looks like a whole segment of E Ring now," I radioed on my commlink, looking at the holographic ship integrity display, and moving to double-check out a side viewport window on the bridge. "Yep," I confirmed. "It's even banging into D Ring, but fortunately it looks to be staying with the ship and not flying off my itself."

"Good thing we're leaving in a fighter from A Dock," my friend radioed back.

"Forward momentum stopping," I reported on my commlink. "Cutting braking thrusters . . . now," I said, hitting another button. "Computer is reporting . . . orbit stable. We're done, Mike. Open the doors for A Dock and then shut everything down. Just leave life support and lighting on in the corridors we need with batteries, and let the batteries run down."

"My assistant and I are completing general shut down," my friend reported. "Sure hope these reactors just stay out here in space. See you at A Dock in fifteen minutes."

"A Dock, fifteen minutes," I replied knowing I could get there long before then.

I proceeded to turn off the holographic displays, and shut down each panel around me in an orderly sequence, in case we ever needed to turn any of it back on again. Once I had finished, I looked around the now almost completely darkened bridge of my command. The only thing left blinking or illuminated were parts of the Navigation and Communication panels. The ship was now programmed to send out a continuous distress call if its orbit decayed and its trajectory was carrying it towards the planet. The remaining small auxiliary hydrogen fusion reactor we were also leaving on to power these systems would run indefinitely, even forever, by itself with the hydrogen available in space around the planet. We'd just have to ensure that a radio from one of our shuttles was left on somewhere down on Terra where we could hear it.

One more time, I was tempted to just stay. But with President Chen leaving open the possibility that the Ark could be re-boarded if needed in the future, I couldn't leave everyone with a ghost ship . . . with my floating corpse onboard to deal with or work around. I did take the time though to quickly take out some tools and remove two small purple cylinders and a short connecting hose assembly from an access panel on one bulkhead of the bridge. _OMEGA – LETHAL_, each cylinder was labeled, along with more detailed descriptions and instructions in fine print underneath. With personal sidearms and weapons now banned on the planet surface without authorization at the request of the peace-loving Terrians, and the concurrence of our human Earth Council, I still wanted to have one option for controlling my own life.

I tucked the cylinders and tools into a knapsack I had brought, hiding them under the last of my spare personal clothes and other items I was taking with me. "Goodbye bridge," I said as I patted the doorway as I now left. I debated as I walked through the still lit corridors as to whether I should stop one more time at my quarters, which were perhaps unfortunately on the way, being just a brief detour down one corridor to the right as I went.

_I love you, Kaila,_ I allowed myself to tearfully think as I walked. How I wished I could search for and retrieve her body somewhere out in this star system, and bring her home to the planet now and lay her to rest, even so I could someday be laid to rest beside her.

When I got to the crucial junction of corridors . . . I decided to turn the corner. Since the corridor to my quarters wasn't on a direct path from the bridge to A Dock, it was now darkened.

"Thought I might find you here," I heard a voice say, waiting for me in the darkened corridor in front of the door to my quarters.

"Mike . . ." I said hesitantly as I looked at him now as he illuminated us both with his flashlight.

"Sharon made me promise that I'd get you onto the shuttle," he simply explained.

"Wives," I said, beginning to tear up now.

"Go ahead, have a look inside John," he knowingly invited, " . . . even leave the door open. Then let's go, okay?"

"Could I have a moment alone in there?" I sniffed.

"I'll be outside the door if you want," my friend replied. "But the door's staying open then."

I just turned, wiping my eyes and pressing the button that opened the door to my quarters. I then stepped inside. My haven was completely barren, and dark now except for the flashlight I shined around. I could see stars out the windows . . . and that planet. I didn't know now if that place could ever be home to me—not without Kaila, as well as without most everything else I had ever known.

I just closed my eyes as tears silently ran down my face now. I was finally allowing myself to mourn. I tuned into my memories, almost hearing again the laughter and joy I had once known with Kaila in this very room. I didn't want to leave it now . . . I just didn't.

After patiently waiting for what must have been minutes, my friend finally spoke. "Come on, John," he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "It's time to go. You are among the living. Sharon and I care about you. This place is dead now. Kaila is letting you go. It's time for you to let go, too, and move on into a new life. We'll help, Sharon and I both will."

"No 'captain going down with his ship'?" I sniffed, turning halfway towards him.

"Sorry sir," my friend replied. "But no. You can have me court marshaled before the Council later, but you're coming with me onto that shuttle. Sharon's been cooking a special welcome dinner for us all day down there. Can't let that go to waste. Let's go."

"Help me . . . move," I said, shutting my eyes as tears once more streamed down my face. My friend put an arm around me and guided me out. I managed to look back one more time inside my quarters as we stepped through the doorway. The star-filled windows, and then the main room faded from my view around the doorway and then down the corridors as Mike helped me walk towards the shuttle.

"Mike," my friend's commlink then buzzed. "I'm shutting down the rotation on A Ring here. Last one. You'll have to use handrails to make it to the shuttle."

"Gotcha, Izumi," my friend radioed back next to me. "Go ahead and then board the shuttle yourself. The commander and I will be right there."

We walked back from my quarters to the central connecting passageway around the edge of A Ring. The lights in the tubular central passageway flickered as a hum audibly slowed down, as did the stars and the rest of the ship outside the viewports. My friend and I now found ourselves floating off the deck as we both grabbed nearby handrails, now having to pull ourselves along the corridor with the loss the ring's rotation, and gravity within it.

Mike then stopped briefly as we approached A Dock, looking at me with concern as tears were still quietly streaming down my face. "Let's compose ourselves, John . . . sir," he suggested. "We still have a couple of crew under us here, and you're still the commanding officer of Earth Force, even on the ground down there."

"I thought I was a civilian the moment I touched the ground on the planet," I sniffed.

"As you know, the Council and the Terrians are still negotiating our transition," my friend reminded me as we remained stopped floating in the corridor. "There's a possibility we senior Earth Force officers at least might become part of the Terrian Eldership somehow . . . join them as guardians of their world."

"But I'm not a warrior though, I'm an engineer," I replied.

"There is plenty of that to do, believe me," Mike assured, even smiling. "The Terrian technologies, especially their advanced ones, are amazing. You haven't seen any of that yet. It'll be good, trust me. Let's go."

"Okay," I accepted, finally smiling a little and wiping my eyes, as my friend and I started pulling ourselves along the handrails towards the fighter bay again.

Soon we were there. Our pilot was already seated in the cockpit, with Mike's assistant engineer strapped into a temporary standing restraint that had been installed along the back bulkhead of the cockpit. There were two other restraints arrayed behind the pilot's seat as well.

"Nice to see you again, Steward," I said recognizing our pilot.

"It's good to be flying you, sir," Lieutenant Stanton replied. "I volunteered for this last run myself. I have your final belongings and bedding stowed away in the multi-purpose compartment in back."

"Thank you," I replied. "The Ark, she has served us well," I then said to all of them, looking back through the still open portal doorway one last time. Another breach alarm now sounded in the corridor, indicating a nearby module or passageway had been compromised to space again. "As well as she could," I sighed. There was no point in fixing that integrity breach now, as we once would have done. The batteries would run down soon, the lights and life support would go out, and the alarm would be silenced. Instead, I now just closed the portal door manually, and activated the lock and seal, for what it was worth, before powering down that panel, too.

"Close the shuttle hatch and let's depart," I ordered with a sigh as I turned and floated around the pilot to strap myself into the middle standing restraint, as my friend, Mike, did the same in the remaining side one next to me. "Bon voyage, Ark," I said as the pilot rolled the shuttle's hatch down and closed, before our circular cockpit module rotated vertically one hundred, eighty degrees within the fighter's four wings to face us ahead in the direction we were going. Stewart then moved his twin control sticks forward and we smoothly blasted forward out of the bay and into open space, even having to dodge some of the Ark's fragments and debris as we left.

"I sure hope we never have to come back here," Mike sighed next to me. "It would be tricky and very dangerous with all this stuff floating out here around the ship."

"Yep," I sighed as I just looked out the three long, tall windows in front of us.

I didn't know what I was flying towards now. I just felt utterly empty and directionless. All I knew is that I'd soon be sharing a good home-cooked meal with Mike and his wife Sharon. A lot of me though wished I had made it to join Kaila in that passageway in time, and that I had just been sucked out through that window with her.


	2. Chapter 2

We left the Ark behind, and passed by Terra's two moons and its rings. These were sights from this vantage point I might never be seeing again. But I just didn't care much. Soon we were entering the planet's atmosphere. I had never done this before, entered any planet's atmosphere. There was some shaking and jarring, but far less than I had expected. Then we were soaring amid blue skies. Virtually the entire surface of the planet was covered by a cloud layer. It looked almost like an ocean of white, even with very slow-moving waves and crests. Amid the cloud layer were clusters of what looked like tall mushrooms, somewhat like those I had seen in my wife's hydroponics modules. Only these had multiple stems and must have been over two hundred metres high.

"Those are Terrian cities," Mike said from his restraint next to me. "They live in those tree-like plant forms, almost like we do in our quarters. There's just no elevators or stairs between levels. Floating as the Terrians naturally do, they just don't need them. But we humans are surface dwellers . . . that's a problem we're still working somewhat to resolve."

"You've been spending more time down here than I thought," I remarked.

"Hardly," he said. "Just a couple quick trips down here with Sharon, moving the last of our stuff, and yours, too. Plus I've been reading the briefing reports President Chen and the Council have been putting out. You should have been catching up with those."

"Men," I said, " . . . this is off the record, and I will be informing the President and others myself. But I want to step down from my role as senior commander, and just be an engineer again. I don't need to become a diplomat or administrator."

"I understand that, sir," our pilot smiled in front of me, looking towards me via our reflections in the central cockpit window ahead of us. "My lips are sealed. But the Terrians might be good to work with. I've begun enjoying my contacts with them."

"I saw what we did to them onboard the Ark, Lieutenant," I said as I looked out through the cockpit windows again. "It's another thing I feel bad about, and can never forget. Debating about that even contributed to my wife's death when she walked out on me during our argument . . . and back towards her hydroponics modules."

"I'm sorry, sir," Stanton empathized as he focused on flying us towards a landing site apparently somewhere amid the clouds away from one of the Terrian cities.

"It's alright, Stewart," I assured. "I've just got a lot to reconcile down here now that my job on the Ark is finally done."

Soon we had penetrated beneath the clouds into what looked like a whitish-grey snowstorm.

"It snows perpetually beneath these clouds," Mike explained. "It's why the Terrians don't live on the surface themselves, except on a few hills and high plains . . . at least the civilians."

Our pilot now made a comm call in what must have been the Terrian language. I didn't understand a word of it, but he seemed to speak it fluently.

"Continue to main landing space," the reply came back via the shuttle's comm in perfect English to my amazement. "Welcome back, Stewart, and we welcome John, your commander, as well. Elder Control out."

"It's protocol now, sir," our pilot explained as the transmission ended and we descended towards a snow-covered dome structure. "We speak Terrian to them, and they speak English to us."

"Well," I sighed, "I don't speak Terrian yet."

"That's alright, sir," Stewart replied. "The Terrians will understand."

Our shuttle proceeded to hover down right through a portal on the dome's top to what seemed to be a circular landing platform in the middle of the structure. Our pilot rotated the craft until it was landing on the backs of its four wings. Our cockpit rotated again so that we remained standing upright. Once we set down on it, that platform then lowered us all down to a hangar-like sublevel.

"Better don your respirators, everyone," our pilot cautioned. "We're about to open to Terrian atmosphere here."

I and the others released our restraints as Mike and his assistant picked up respirator packs from brackets near the floor on either side of the cockpit, with Mike passing one to me, as Stewart activated the respirator within his flight suit. The rest of us then put respirator collars around our necks, and each donned the small packs on our belts under our uniform tunics while picking up our individual backpacks as well. As the platform stopped descending, we hit buttons and raised our air pieces into position just in front of our mouths and noses. The round pieces would now blast a gentle, continuous stream of breathable air that we could breath in by either nose or mouth, and still talk easily.

"Opening the cockpit," our pilot now warned as the cockpit once again rotated so it angled to the platform's floor while the cockpit windows rolled upward.

"Welcome to Terra," President Chen himself said wearing his respirator, with Elder Doron next to him, stepping closer to our craft as we unstrapped ourselves from the cockpit and stepped carefully down its angled deck and out of it in planetary gravity now. "Commander," he continued shaking my hand, " . . . I'm sure you remember Elder Doron."

"Pleasure," I smiled weakly behind my respirator as I reluctantly shook his hand, shifting my knapsack more comfortably on my shoulder. I was just ready now to rest though, and to be left alone.

"We would like you to join us for dinner," I heard a voice say. It seemed to be coming from Doron however.

"Organic optical data downloads, from our utility robots," Chen explained, seeing my puzzled look. "The Terrians interacting with us are all quickly learning English in this way."

"It makes understanding and cooperation easier," Doron explained. "We invite each of you to learn and speak our language in the same way . . . but only if you want to."

"It is becoming expected courtesy and protocol though when we deal with the Terrians," the president clarified. "Our Council has decided that."

"Understood, sir," I replied, bracing myself to allow one of our robots 'educate' me on the Terrian language soon through light streams beamed into my eyes at some point.

"Doron and I would like you to join us for dinner though," Chen continued. "There is much to discuss and bring you up to speed on."

"Sir," I said reluctantly, "I had already accepted a dinner invitation from my Second Engineer here and his wife. She has apparently been cooking for me. Also, now that we are on Terra . . . I'm, well, just ready for a change myself."

"You can't retire on us yet," the president smiled at me, giving me a friendly slap on my shoulder. "I certainly haven't been able to. And if I can't, you can't either."

"Yes, sir," I accepted with a sigh, looking at Mike.

"It's okay," my friend assured. "Sharon and I will check on you later. We know where you'll be quartered in one of the Earth atmosphere columns of this complex for now. And we'll save the best of her food for tomorrow."

"I don't even know where I'm quartered," I noted. "But yeah, see you later."

I then followed Chen and Doron as they led me off in a different direction from where the others were now headed. I should have been paying attention and at least making mental notes of what both the president and elder were telling me, but all I could feel was depressed and trapped. I was being forced even further into a role now that I just didn't want to be in. I had not had a day off, and I had not had the chance to truly mourn my wife's passing. It was all becoming too much for me now . . . way too much.

We walked, or rather Doron floated, through a doorway into a large central column within the massive underground hangar, and into what looked like a central command or control room. There were Terrians all around the circular chamber in front of various control panels and stations, and a large holographic display sustained by curved rotating wands in the middle of it. The three of us then continued into a side room with a table that was divided down the middle with a large curtain of translucent material running across the entire room.

"We can breathe our own air on the other side of this curtain," President Chen said, holding one flap of the curtain aside and inviting me through it.

"I hope that curtains will not always divide us," Doron noted as we all three sat down at the table as three Terrian attendants then entered the room, bringing us plates of food, with the two attendants serving Chen and myself wearing respirator masks of Terrian design across their mouths so they could float into our side of the room.

"We have a raft of issues still to go through here," Chen added to me, as plates of what looked like gelatinous salad were laid down before each of us. "But we're finding some of their food edible to us, and we're finding that some of our food crops can grow here. We might even be able to establish ponds of our own water to even release the cryogenically frozen fish embryos that we brought from Earth with us."

"Trout for dinner," I quipped. I had only read about how good eating fish was from books and historical accounts though, having never experienced it in space myself.

"We do not believe in consuming other conscious beings to sustain ourselves," Doron noted as he began eating what looked like a gelatinous salad of his own on his side of the curtain.

"So it's synthetic meat proteins forever more," I sighed. "Well, I've been used to that my whole life so far."

"We have teams of our scientists, and yours," Doron replied, "already exploring what might be possible in foods for all of us. The pleasure of eating well is something my people value, too. But John, are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I assured, even though I was really anything but.

"We prize health and wellness here, too," Doron noted, looking with concern at me, "of both body and mind, even what we call life essence . . . what you refer to as soul or spirit. I can have healers help you, if you would like."

"I don't need any robots, thank you," I said.

"We don't use machines," the elder replied. "Especially for such important work."

"I am looking forward to rest, Elder," I noted with all the restrained respect I could muster. I really was not cut out for this diplomat thing.

"Of course," Doron responded.

"The Elders and our Council have agreed upon a program of mutual exchange and cultural immersion though," President Chen continued as we all ate now. "We're looking to pair humans and Terrians of similar backgrounds and life experiences for shared learning and even problem-solving, for both our peoples."

"We have much to learn from each other," Doron agreed. "Your technologies and knowledge are superior to ours in some areas, and ours are superior in others. There could be significant benefit for both our peoples. We would like you to participate as well."

"Sirs," I sighed, "with all due respect, I am an engineer . . . not a diplomat, and not an administrator," I concluded looking at Chen next to me. "I have completed the mission I was ordered to, and that I willingly undertook. Our people are safe, and the Ark is safely shut down. Our crisis is over . . . and my wife has died." It was all I could do not to break down in tears again. I just focused on eating my salad, which fortunately tasted fairly good.

"I see . . ." Doron noted, without elaborating further.

"Well," Chen said, "please think about participating in this exchange with a Terrian partner. I'm not ordering you to . . . but I am asking you to."

"I will consider it, sir," I replied as I continued eating. "I am sorry though, I'm just not at my best right now. It's been a long three weeks . . . keeping that ship together, while also tearing it apart, and keeping everyone remaining and working there both safe and comfortable."

"I understand, John," Chen assured as he laid a hand on me. "And let's drop the formalities now. Doron and everyone here just go by their names. They rarely use titles. Doron is First Elder, but he talks with everyone as a friend, perhaps even what we'd think of as a parent."

"I want to be your friend, too, John," Doron added, reaching a three-fingered hand across the table and through the curtain towards me.

"Thank you, Doron," I accepted. There was an energy in his touch as I clasped his hand . . . a wonderful energy that seemed to almost uncontrollably open me up inside. I had to let go before I found myself crying. "Sorry," I apologized. "I'm just going through a lot here."

"Would you allow me to send a healer to you, even after our meal here?" the elder offered. "I think you would benefit from it."

"Not yet, please," I said as my eyes watered anyway. "I just need some rest. Let's just bring me up to speed on the rest of what I need to know about and be involved with for now," I tried to deflect. "Then I would really like to be permitted to rest if I might . . . perhaps even have a day off here to adjust."

"We understand," Chen said. "And call me Joe from now on, okay? It's my first name."

"Yes, sir . . . I mean Joe," I accepted.

Our dinner conversation moved on to details of habitat that was being constructed for humans to inhabit. I was hoping to live unrestricted, even in a real house, like I'd seen pictures of from Earth. I was told I might be able to live in a house, or more likely a tower dwelling, but now it would be under a large, climate and atmosphere-controlled shelter. Even worse, we'd be surrounded by the clouds and snow all the time, but the shelter was being constructed so that we would get direct sun ourselves, as the Terrians normally enjoyed.

"It does rain on us, too, periodically," Doron noted, "even above the surface cloud layer."

_Great,_ I sighed silently to myself as both Doron and Joe continued talking to me _. . . trading one cage for another_. This was not sounding like what I had been expecting life on a planet to finally be like, or what I wanted.

"We're also exploring a truth and reconciliation process between our peoples," Chen continued on another topic. "We're still finding wreckage and casualties from both sides out on the surface. The process wouldn't really be to assign blame or punishment now, just accounting for everything that happened, on both sides. Our side were the aggressors anyway, and we have nothing left really to pay reparations with."

"Nor do my people desire any," Doron now picked up. "But John, I cannot express the gratitude of my people enough for returning our dead to us from your ship as your people did, bearing them to us as honoured fallen, and also providing records of what happened to them. Those records clearly indicate to our satisfaction that you did not know what or whom your people were picking up at the time, and that machines committed most of the wrongs to our people . . . which is one reason why we do not use such machines as much here."

"Your Deck Officer said you gave a direct order to preserve them, and return the remains with full honors," Joe added after looking down briefly with a degree of shame. "I cannot tell you what a difference that made, to both our peoples. We were all moved as that transport was unloaded."

"Thank you, sir . . . I mean Joe. Yes I did," I confirmed. "I just didn't want anything swept under the rug. Those Terrians we took had families, too, and those families deserve to know. I also know what it's like to lose a loved one, and not be able to lay them to rest," I said as I looked down.

"John, please . . . let us help," Doron urged, seeing tears well up in my eyes.

"Please sirs," I sniffed, rising out of my chair now, "I would just like to be permitted to rest, and to mourn the loss of my wife in my own way."

"Call me if you need anything, John," Chen also urged, "at any hour."

"I will, sir. Thank you," I said, excusing myself and donning my respirator again as I left through the curtain.

— — — — —

I left dinner barely holding myself together, as Doron then had a Terrian attendant guide me across the massive underground hangar bay to one of the interim human accommodation columns within the underground Elder Complex. As we walked, or I walked anyway, I noticed gracefully curved, bird-like Terrian fighters, as well as patrol ships and other craft were parked right alongside our own harder-edged Plus-wing fighters and T-wing bombers now, even though they had been shooting at each other less than a month ago. I had thought that I would be seeing our own craft being dismantled in surrender, but that was not the case. The ships of our two peoples were now existing side by side. Looking at the attendant leading me though, I just wondered how it would be possible for humans and Terrians to do that. We couldn't even breathe the same air.

My attendant now donned a Terrian respirator as he led me into a ground-level passageway inside a large vertical column within the hangar that was lit up with windows, like one of the arms or rings of our Ark had been. We continued through a curtain.

"You may remove your respirator now," my guide said. "We are in your atmosphere."

"Thank you," I simply replied as I removed the air piece in front of my face again, as we continued up a couple ramps to progressively higher levels within the column, ramps that the Terrians had evidently built to accommodate our human surface-bound limitations. We then went along a number of hallways within the column to one door . . . mine. I'd have to remember the way I came, just to get out of here. The attendant slid the door open. I then shook my head, almost crying again. Sharon had gone and decorated the space with many of my and Kaila's things. A handwritten 'Welcome Home!' banner was also suspended across the living room area from the clay-like ceiling. Even the view out my sealed windows towards other columns within the hangar bay almost looked the same as the views I had known on the Ark. It was surprisingly like home to me . . . almost overwhelmingly so.

"Thank you," I managed to say to my Terrian guide. "You may go now."

"Welcome . . . to our world, neighbor," the assistant replied, seeming to smile under his respirator as he turned to leave.

Once the door had closed, I just collapsed on my new bed in the adjacent bedroom and finally let the hell that I had been holding back inside me out. The pain and grief were overwhelming as I cried fully at last.

This life ahead I was looking at now though . . . living like an animal in a zoo cage, like I had read about from Earth history, for Terrians to float about beyond outside and look at, even though they proclaimed friendship and equality . . . it wasn't right, and it was just too much. Change, continuing responsibilities, solitude . . . it just didn't seem like life was going to be enjoyable for me like this, any of it. I would just drudge along, alone, with everybody asking this or that, or expecting orders from me . . . even though we were all supposed to be friends now and call each other by our first names.

_Kaila . . . where are you when I need you?_ I thought desperately. I wanted to get back into space again. I wanted to just find her and end it. But I knew neither the Council nor anyone else would give me a shuttle, not for what I wanted to do with it.

Mike and Sharon, and probably others, would be checking on me before long, easing me into this new life that now just felt wrong for me. "It'll be fine," I could hear them say as they would subtly drag and trap me into it.

No, not for me. I looked at my knapsack that I had dropped on the bed next to me. _Now might be your only chance,_ I told myself. I had already lost chance after chance in wanting to stay onboard the Ark and just go to sleep and never wake up. _They will cremate or bury me here, sooner or later anyway,_ I then realized. _So why not sooner? Save me all this grief and loneliness. Let's just go, now._

"Kaila," I said as I now took the two small purple cylinders out of my knapsack and laid both them and myself on the bed. "I'm coming for you. We're gonna be together again . . . and this time, I'm not letting go."

I put the end of the rubber hose assembly connected to both cylinders in my mouth as I lay my head on the pillow. I then opened the manual back-up valves on both cylinders and began breathing in through my mouth and out through my nose. There was almost a sweet taste about the air I began to breathe in from the cylinders now. I felt myself relax and get sleepy. I began to lose touch with my body as I continued to breathe. It was a good, pleasant, even comforting sensation. I felt totally at peace for the first time since Kaila died. I was ready to go.

"John . . . ?" I heard in my growing fog. "John . . . !" the voice, a female one echoed. It was Sharon. She was coming to check on me. Now she was screaming. I felt the hose being yanked from my mouth as everything faded to black . . .

— — — — —

I woke up to a bright light over me. My face had a mask on it. Was I back onboard the Ark again? I was in a room with polished white acrylic surfaces, even dark status panels. The Exam Room of the Ark's Medical Bay! But wait . . . we had brought it with us . . . to Terra, I then remembered.

Then I saw a Terrian hovering next to me. Yep, darn it, I realized to my chagrin, I was still on the planet . . . and I was still alive. I closed my eyes, realizing I had probably ruined my life now. The Earth Force Commanding Officer, a failed suicide attempt. I would never be trusted with any responsibility again, and I would just be looked upon by everyone, human and Terrian alike, with pity.

_Just kill me now!_ I practically screamed in my thoughts. _Just let me die. Let. Me. Go._

My thoughts were interrupted by the bay's robotic probe arms examining me, and injecting me with further drugs to stabilize my condition. I just closed my eyes in surrender to it all, tearfully shaking my head.

"Could you please get these machines out of the way?" I heard a female voice say with a degree of frustration.

"Computer," I heard another voice command in response, " . . . withdraw robotic arms from patient."

"Compliance," the familiar and very soothing female computer voice responded as the robotic arms now withdrew against a central nexus extending downward from the room's ceiling. At least we had brought a few 'comforts of home' with us.

"John," the purple-eyed Terrian then said with that female voice I had initially heard, wearing one of their respirator masks and now moving closer and caressing the side of my face with her hand, "how are you doing?"

I just shook my head no and closed my eyes. I didn't want to be here.

"Your body is better," she continued. "Let's work on your essence, together."

I now felt that Terrian energy again emanate through her soft, three-fingered hand as she continued to gently stroke my face. It opened me up, even opened my soul up. I started crying uncontrollably. I now resisted though, wanting to regain control of myself. I reached up and removed her hand from my face. I then yanked the oxygen mask from over my mouth and nose as well.

"Leave me alone!" I was finally able to say, albeit almost in a hoarse whisper with what the gas had done to my throat and lungs. "Doesn't everyone get it by now? I just don't want to be here!"

"His essence is in very serious condition," the Terrian female now said to others in the room. _Oh no,_ I realized as I looked to my side, seeing whom she was talking to. Not only were my friends Mike and Sharon there, both looking very concerned, but so were President Chen and Elder Doron. _Just great!_ I thought. Oh how I wished someone would just let me die.

"I will be staying with him," the Terrian calmly said. "The rest of you must go for now."

"I'm sorry . . . to all of you," I felt compelled to whisper as the others turned to leave. "It would have been easier if you had just found me . . . later."

"No, John," Sharon tearfully said to me as Mike held an arm around her. "It would have been harder, much harder, if we had found you any later. Kaila wouldn't have wanted this for you . . . she wouldn't have."

"I just wanted to go, where she was," I said quietly, looking up at the ceiling again.

"Commander . . . John," President Chen said, "you have my full confidence, and sympathy. The Terrians want to heal you, in ways they say we can't. Let them. A better life, and your job, will waiting for you on the other side of this."

"John," Doron added, now coming closer to me, " . . . trust us. Let things in. All will be better."

"Please go now, everyone," the female Terrian who was evidently now my healer said. "You will see him again, when it is time."

The room then emptied of visitors and the doors slid closed. Even though I was an engineer, I had never liked this Exam Room. It had always felt too sterile and impersonal to me. 'Death by computer', I'd always thought of it as. The healer took my hand again, just looking at me for a moment in silence, almost seeming to contemplate me.

"You'd better clear me out of here, too," I quietly decided from the table I was lying on. "We only brought down this one unit, and I don't want to be taking it up for someone who might need it more than I do." I just wanted to get out of this room. It unnerved me.

"Are you ready to go?" the Terrian healer asked.

"Yeah," I replied hoarsely still. "I am."

"Don't get up," she said as she laid a hand on me as I began straining to do just that. "We will transport you, on a hover bed." She then went to the door as it opened for her and spoke in their language to someone outside.

Soon, another Terrian was bringing a mobile bed that had no wheels, just spinning propellers keeping it off the floor. My healer and the attendant then positioned the bed next to mine, and both helped transfer me to it. The bed sank a little with my weight, but the attendant seemed to turn or push something and the bed hovered normally again. My healer then gave me an Earth respirator collar, laying its pack along my side, and activated the air piece in front of my face.

"I will be giving you something to help you sleep," she said. "It will be a long journey for you." She then injected me with an Earth hypospray syringe and I was out like a light.

— — — — —

I woke up the next morning to see natural daylight for a change. But it was framed by a strangely rounded window. I looked around the room to see it was all in tan colors. There was a small table, furnishings, even curved walls . . . I was in a home. But I was also inside a tent made of some kind of fine, translucent netting within that home, one that provided an Earth atmosphere of oxygen for my human lungs. Plus I was in a strange, oval-shaped bed that was curved like a plate or shallow bowl . . . and was way too small for me. My lower legs were sticking right out of it and my feet were touching the floor. The bed would have been fine for a human child, or for the Terrians it evidently was made for, none of whom seemed to be over one and a half metres tall, although they could easily float eye to eye with us. While I could rest most of my body in this bed, and I did have a pillow, it just wasn't for me. But, here I was anyway.

"You're awake," I heard a voice say. I turned my head. It was my healer. She was outside the tent, but now donning her Terrian respirator before coming in. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she now entered my tent.

"How do you want me to feel?" I replied.

"Why do you say that?" she queried.

"Because I realize I'm in therapy now," I sighed, just getting right to the point. "And I've never liked therapy or the idea of psychiatrists and all that."

"You think I'm just your healer?" she followed up.

"Well aren't you?" I replied.

"I'm your partner," she said, " . . . in the exchange program between our peoples."

"I told them I didn't want to participate in that," I sighed now looking away. "And after what I just did, I'm certainly not ready to."

"Elder Doron asked me to partner with you," she gently countered. "He said that you needed me as much as I needed you."

"How could you possibly need me?" I asked. "Especially after I tried to kill myself?"

"I lost my mate in the battle, too," she quietly said.

That struck me right to the core, even stabbed me through my heart. "I'm sorry," I now much more gently replied. "I had no idea."

"I hadn't had a chance to tell you yet," she seemed to smile beneath her breathing mask with a tinge of sadness. "I suppose we better introduce ourselves. I am Kila," she said, taking my hand again, "and I am a healer. But I am also a being, what you call a person. I am more than what I do for others."

"And I'm John, John Meyers. I was an engineer and commander on the Ark," I replied, beginning to feel that Terrian energy once more as I accepted her somewhat smaller, three-fingered hand in mine. Fortunately the energy was feeling less intense right now.

"The sky vessel far above us?" she double-checked.

"Yes," I said.

"I was scared when your vessel blocked our sun, and then everything else started happening," she noted.

"I'm sorry for that," I apologized. "I opposed much of what we did there. But I didn't feel I could do much about it. Kaila called me on it though, just before she died."

"Kaila was your mate?" the Terrian asked as she continued to hold my hand.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"My mate was named Jorn," she said.

"We're both screwed here," I sadly sighed, trying to joke.

"What?" she asked.

"Sorry," I replied. "Earth slang . . . and an attempt at humor. It means that we're both reminded of things we don't really need or want to be right now, through the similarity of our own names to the names of each other's mates."

"I am sad at losing him," she said. "But I like to be reminded of him, because it reminds me of the love he and I shared. So I like your name already, John. I will like it for who you are as well though, not just because it sounds like his. But how did you lose your mate?"

"I lost her when a piece of debris hit a passageway she was returning to work through," I explained, feeling somehow relaxed now with her invitation to talk about it. The energy from her hand was gentle and soothing now. "The debris created a hole, and my wife was sucked through it out into space. The irony is I was later told that the debris was caused by a Terrian blasting out of one of our docks, escaping in a fighter."

"I'm sorry," Kila replied.

"It wasn't your fault," I said.

"No, but you feel sad about it," she replied. "And I empathize. Maybe I'm using the wrong words in your language—I'm still getting used to all these new words and ideas one of your robots beamed into my head through my eyes yesterday. But that's what I meant."

"I understand," I affirmed. "It just amazes me though that your kind would talk to, and even save us, after what we did to your people. I saw what was done to them myself. I felt terrible about that."

"It's alright," Kila assured, somehow sensing me get upset again as she gently squeezed my hand tighter and I felt more of that Terrian energy. "The way you feel about what you saw is good. That is your essence attempting to balance, compensate inside you against what you saw. But I lost my mate when the cloud-sailer warship he was flying was blasted out of the sky by one of your fighters," she then explained.

"Both our mates were killed by the other's people," I noted. "How do you and I get along then, even here?"

"That," Kila replied, "is what we are here to discover, together."


	3. Chapter 3

Kila remained with me as I gradually recovered my strength that day. She just sat with me, mostly talking about light subjects and gently feeding me more of that Terrian energy as she held my hand.

"Would you mind forgon again?" she finally suggested as dinnertime came. "Doron said you seemed to like it and eat it well."

"You mean that gelatinous salad, with green and blue stuff in it?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think you could describe it that way," she said. "I do have one of your commlinks though, so I can call your friends if you want something else."

"No," I decided as I lay in bed. "Forgon will be fine."

"I'll be right back," she then smiled through her mask.

"Kila," I said, stopping her for a moment, " . . . thank you."

"You're welcome," she replied as she hesitated, floating near the exit from my oxygen tent and seeming to smile beneath her mask even more.

Soon, she was back with a large bowl of forgon, and two plates.

"Only eat as much as you want," she said. "I can save the rest. Can you sit up?"

"I have nothing to sit up against," I noted, looking around my oval-shaped bed that was in the middle of the tent.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "We'll have to do something for you then."

"I used to like my bed stacked with pillows under my back against a wall," I noted.

"Could you stand for a moment then?" she asked.

"I'll try," I said as she floated to my side to help me.

"You're warm," she pleasantly noted as I just put my arm around her, drawing her against me as I tried to stand on my feet. I notice her clothed, flat tail undulate faster beneath her, and the energy I was receiving from her surge more as she tried to help me up.

"And you're soft," I replied as I managed to wobble somewhat on my feet as I started involuntarily crying again. "Plus you have this energy about you," I added, trying to maintain normal conversation anyway, "even if it's a little overwhelming right now."

"I'm sorry," she said as we both moved my bed over to a wall, even pressing my air tent against the wall as I felt her energy subside a bit as her tail tried to compensate by undulating even faster as she helped support me. "But thank you. The energy is part of my essence, my spirit or life force, as you might think of it as. It, along with the gasses in us you call hydrogen, helium and methane, helps us float."

"Well, we're much heavier," I responded as my tears somehow diminished, "being comprised of mostly dihydrogen monoxide . . . what we call water, somewhat salty water at that, with a fair amount of iron and sodium chloride."

"Yes, I was studying up on your physiologies more before you woke up this morning," she noted. "But we have a fair amount of liquid and tissues within us, too. There, your bed is as you want. Let me get you some pillows for your back and head."

"Thanks again," I said with a slight smile, easing back down onto the bed with her assistance before Kila parted from me. I almost hated her leaving my side.

"You're welcome . . . again," she replied as she then left the tent. If the rest of her people were like Kila, I decided I was beginning to like these Terrians.

She soon returned with an armful of pillows of various sizes and shapes. Most of them were covered by fairly coarse fabrics, but a few were silky and smooth. She stacked them behind me as I sat on the side of the bed and then helped me settle against them. Just being cared for again like this almost made me cry. I was still way too much of a mess inside.

"Are you comfortable now, and ready to eat?" she invited as she pulled up a table beside my bed with a plate of forgon on it and what looked like a large wooden two-pronged salad fork for me to use.

"Yes, but aren't you eating, too?" I asked noting there was no chair and plate for her at the table.

"I cannot eat and wear my respirator at the same time," she said. "But if you like, I'll move another table and chair right next to you on the other side of the tent here, and we can eat and talk, okay?"

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Do not apologize for breathing the air you have to," she smiled behind her mask as she caressed my face one more time before leaving my tent. Soon, she had moved another table and chair right near my bed and table and sat down to eat dinner with me.

"This is good," I said as I took another forkful of food. "Even better than what I had last night with Doron."

"Well, thank you very much," Kila replied, flattered. "Better than forgon the elders serve and eat? That is high praise indeed."

"I used to enjoy my wife's cooking," I mused as I continued eating. "She said it was one way she wanted to show she loved me. Even better though was when I had the time to cook or make dinners with her. That was so much fun. I miss that . . . I miss that so much . . ." I now put down my fork, suddenly overwhelmed by sadness.

Kila now dropped her own fork and donned her respirator again as she reentered my tent. "It's alright," she said as she took my hand with both of hers. That Terrian energy of hers just flooded into me.

"No please," I sobbed, wanting to regain control of myself and trying to free my hand from her. "The energy . . . it's too much."

"But it's what your essence needs," she said, "to heal. Don't resist, just accept it."

"But it makes me cry," I said, weeping.

"That releases poisonous energy from within you," she assured. "It is what your essence needs to do in order to purge and purify itself, so that it can accept positive, healing energy again. It takes extra energy to do that though, at least it does for my people. That's what healers like me do, provide that extra energy that others need in order to heal."

"So," I sniffed, having something else to focus on for the moment, "this is kind of like when our stomach causes us to vomit after food poisoning, or a build-up of flu toxins?"

Kila had to look aside and think briefly. "Yes," she finally said. "That is a good analogy. What I am trying to encourage you to do might be called emotional or toxic energy vomiting."

I had to laugh through my tears at that one. She laughed, too.

"Very good, John," she encouraged.

"What?" I sniffed. "You did it . . . making me laugh."

"But you laughed," she replied. "That is very good progress. You made me laugh, too. It's the first time since Jorn died that I've laughed."

"You're healing me," I noted as my tears somehow diminished again. "How can I help heal you?"

"I . . . I don't know," she replied more quietly as she now let go of my hand and floated back out of my tent.

"Kila, I'm sorry if I said anything to upset you," I said as she now sat at her table outside the tent again.

"No," she replied. "I'm fine. But I think I'm finished with dinner. You want any more?"

"I'm fine," I sighed now feeling I'd ruined a special moment between us. "But I could use more water though. It's good, and I am thirsty."

"You like it?" she asked. "Because it's unchanged Terrian water . . . one of the things I'm supposed to invite you to try, as some other humans are as well. We're supposed to report the results."

"Well, tell them I think it's great," I sniffed, still recovering myself somewhat. "The best water I've ever had. Is there anything else we're supposed to do?"

"Talk, share," she simply replied. "For now, anyway. It's getting late though. I should clean up, and you should rest. But I'll bring you more water."

"Speaking of water, do you have what we call a bathroom?" I asked.

"Ah yes," she recognized. "The needs chamber, where we take care of . . . personal needs. It's just around the corner, outside this room. Just put on your respirator mask. Do you need help?"

"I'd like to say no," I replied. "But standing up a little while ago, I'm not sure."

"I'll help you get there," she assured, once again putting on her mask and coming back inside my tent. Once again as we put an arm around each other as she helped me stand, there was that energy. I started crying again.

"I'll turn down my energy," she said as I activated my respirator and she helped me walk. "I can control it."

"Thank you," I responded as my tears diminished. "But what happens when you turn it up?"

"Well, um . . . I don't think we should talk about that right now," she said seeming to be somewhat embarrassed as she helped me walk out of the tent.

"Really, why?" I replied, intrigued.

"It's something we Terrians do among ourselves, but only as couples, okay?" she quickly answered, avoiding my glance.

"Oh, sorry," I responded. "Didn't mean to pry."

"And here's the needs chamber," she noted. "I don't mean to pry either, as you say. But I hope it meets your needs. I'll leave you here as I clean up. Let me know if you need anything, or when you're ready to go back."

She now left to clean up our dinner, closing the curtain behind her. While things were definitely different in this tan-colored, softly-lit chamber, I could still figure out what was what. The sink and even the bath were normal enough, but what appeared to be a toilet was just a raised fixture with a pretty narrow bowl or slot in it. "Oh well," I sighed as I made the best of things.

Soon, I managed to make my own way back, and was in bed again by the time Kila came back to check on me.

"You alright?" she asked, floating beside my tent.

"I'm better," I replied. "How are you?"

"I'm better, too," Kila answered. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," I smiled.

"Good night," she then said. "Just call for me if you need anything."

"I need things," I sighed. "But I don't think anyone here can provide them."

"I hope someone could, sometime," she replied as she turned out the light in my room and left for her own.

I just settled into my bed with a single blanket, and my legs hanging right over the edge. Strangely though, I was comfortable enough. I now found this room, this place soothing to me somehow, and faded peacefully off to sleep.

— — — — —

"Morning, well midday now actually," I heard Kila greet me with a glass of water. "You slept a long time. I even had a chance to catch up on other things this morning. But did you rest well? Do you feel refreshed?"

"Yeah," I said. "I do."

"Would you like to go outside this afternoon?" she invited. "I think it might be good for you, and I'm getting a sense you don't like to be kept in just one space or room."

"You're right about that," I smiled a bit. "But I'm not sure if I can stand or walk that much yet."

"I have that taken care of," she assured. "I'll be right back."

Soon, she was coming back with an enlarged version of something I was already familiar with . . . a Terrian hoverchair.

"Believe it or not, I've actually analyzed one of those," I almost laughed, before my smile faded, remembering where I had done that, and what I had seen around me.

"What is it?" she asked, moving around it as it hovered near me and reaching for my hand again.

"No, it's fine," I replied, brushing her hand aside as I just got up and moved to sit myself in the chair. She reached to support one of my arms, taking my hand again as she did.

"Ah," she seemed to realize as she helped me. "You said you saw what was being done to my people around you as you worked on this chair."

"Did I?" I wondered, not quite remembering sharing that level or bit of detail with her.

"You did," she quickly replied. Something about the way she said that seemed just a little odd though as she withdrew her hand now that I was settled in the chair. "But it's okay. As I've assured, you weren't responsible for what happened, and this chair wasn't the one you were examining. So maybe just let that memory be for now, and allow a new memory of this chair, and me taking you outside to grow alongside it, okay?"

"Okay," I accepted, feeling warmed, even soothed by her gentle suggestions.

"Come on, let's go," she invited. I just smiled as I donned my respirator looked at the spinning propellers and fans around me. "Just push the handrests in any direction you wish to go," she coached beside me, as I soon pivoted the chair around and we went towards the front door of her home. "Very good, you know that pushing one forward and the other back will pivot you around in it. Now, twisting them both to the right will make you go up—"

"And to the left, down . . . I am an engineer," I interjected, smiling. Kila smiled, too as she floated next to me.

I bumped against a wall or two as we floated along a hallway of her home as I got the hang of working the chair.

"Sorry," I apologized as I looked back and saw a nick in a wall that I had just left with a propeller of my chair.

"Don't worry about it," Kila smiled next to me as we continued through her living room. "It will grow out. The plant this home is in is living after all. Or I might just use it as an excuse to widen this hall—it is a bit narrow."

"And that doesn't hurt the plant?" I wondered.

"No," she assured. "The plant continues to grow around the rooms we make. The only way it can die is if we sever it completely, or from disease or extreme old age. Then we cut it into small pieces from the top down, before it falls and hurts others, using it as firewood, or to nurture the soil below for other plants. But here," she then gestured to a large opening in front of us, "is my city, our world . . . and yours now, too."

"Wow," I said in awe as we emerged into the open air through her front doorway. It was a bright, busy, bustling city—with both aerial vehicles of various kinds and Terrians floating freely, moving in all directions around us, at various heights in the air.

"Like it?" she smiled, taking my right hand in hers.

"Yeah," I agreed, almost lost in wonder. "But I had no idea you lived so high up," I added a little nervously as I looked down and saw I was some two hundred metres above even a cloud layer below.

"Well some prefer accommodations lower down in these large plants, ones that don't sway in the winds as much," she said. "But I don't mind."

"I've noticed," I replied. "It was kind of slowly rocking me to sleep last night."

"Yeah," she smiled. "It does. But come this way," she now led me going downwards as I twisted both handrests to the left while pushing them forward. "I want to show you our common areas."

Together, we floated downwards next to the towering stalk she lived in. I noticed a number of large, green plants anchored to the stalk, and to others stalks around it, with their pedals or leaves open to the sun above. There was some music in the air that made the busy city peaceful . . . even joyous.

Beneath us I saw various round platforms also anchored to the huge stalks, where Terrians seemed to be engaged in a variety of activities, and where some of their aerial machines and vehicles seemed to be parked.

"Do your people do everything outdoors?" I wondered.

"Work, education, other things . . . when we can," Kila replied as she floated gently downward through the air alongside me. "But like your kind, we still go inside when it rains. We just enjoy being in the sun when we can though, sometimes even spreading ourselves out, like that plant next to us."

"This feels good," I said, looking around me as we went.

"John, I am so glad," she replied warmly, looking at me. "You don't mind your respirator?"

"I hardly notice I'm wearing it," I smiled behind my air piece.

"I feel the same way with my respirator when I am in your tent," she echoed. "Come, let's go listen to our music-makers practice."

We soon both hovered near some Terrians blowing a variety of what looked like horns and wind instruments, with a couple tapping their three-fingered hands on what looked like tall Earth bongo drums.

"We have those same kind of drums," I noted.

"Really?" she remarked.

"Yes," I confirmed. "Some of those horns look and sound somewhat familiar, too."

That just made her smile as she laid a hand on mine again, the energy just flowing very gently now.

"I enjoy music," she said, almost closing her eyes.

"I do, too," I agreed, closing my eyes with her briefly. "Have you ever heard violins and harps . . . stringed instruments? Or other types of musical instruments?"

"No," she said. "But those sound interesting, they really do."

"How would you know though, if your people don't have them?" I wondered.

"Well . . . we have received some information on your people and culture now," she replied, withdrawing her hand again. "But I'm just curious about your music, so the instruments you mention sound interesting.

"Come though, let's look around some more," she then invited as we turned and hovered off in a new direction within the city. "Down there is a school for our children," she said, looking at one platform where young Terrians were seated at tables around an amphitheatre on one platform. "And there's where we make what you call cloth and other materials from plants," she noted at what looked like an outdoor production line.

"Is that a farm over there?" I noted looking off through the stalk towers towards one fairly flat exposed hilltop above the surface clouds, and seeing somewhat elongated cream and brown beings floating just above the surface and seeming to just suck plants into their narrow mouths as Terrians appeared to be working around them.

"Yes," Kila confirmed. "It's where we work with what you would call animals, mainly what you would consider to be basically floating cows that we call tonori. We help the plants they eat to grow, and they give us grondor, what you would call milk."

"But Doron said you don't consume other conscious beings," I noted.

"That's right," she agreed. "We work with them, in harmony, to produce what we each want . . . plants for them to eat, and grondor for us to drink, and make into other foods, too. We don't eat them, and they don't eat us . . . well, not directly. But when we all die, our bodies become part of the ground and the air around us again, and the plants benefit from that."

"Methane," I deduced. "That's where it comes from."

"Yes," she agreed. "That gas is released from our bodies when we die, even when we exhale, and is largely absorbed by much of our plant life, which in turn produces hydrogen for us to breathe. I understand you have a similar symbiosis though, breathing out carbon dioxide which plants absorb to produce oxygen. That happens a little here to a degree, too. But it's a circle that benefits all."

"What's that, up there?" I asked as I looked skyward and saw a huge, graceful, blue and white speckled mass now gently passing above me.

"That?" she smiled. "It's what you would call a sky whale. They pass around us, even among our homes at times. Want to see it closer?"

"Yes," I replied.

"This way," she smiled, leading me away from the sky whale above though.

Soon, I found out why as we floated onto a round platform attached to the side of a stalk tower, and settled into the Terrian equivalent of a car that I'd read humans had once used on Earth. This craft was narrow, with Kila sitting in front of me steering it with a T-shaped wheel. A set of blades were on its curved tail to act like the rotor of an old Earth helicopter to allow us to hover in the air, while another propeller at the rear, along with a pair of large mechanical wings that beat slowly, propelled us forward. She activated it and we lifted off the platform, then turning and heading off between the stalk towers amid other traffic.

"There's one of them," she pointed ahead as we now left the Terrian city and rose higher into the sky. "A pair of them actually."

"They don't mind us getting close?" I wondered.

"They are quite used to us," she replied. "As I said, they come right through our cities at times, even join us in celebrations. They just glide, absorbing nutrients and hydrogen from the air as they go."

Kila now piloted our craft up behind the two blue sky whales, even rising in between them. Their huge side fins slowly beat up and down either side of their massive oval-shaped bodies, moving them forward with such utter grace. Taking in everything about them, from their tiny, four-lipped mouths at their fronts, to their peaceful eyes and their tapered five-part tails, I felt a wonderful harmony inside, even love, as I watched them. Other tanned, birdlike creatures with slowly flapping broad wings now joined and flew alongside us as well. I was glad I hadn't succeeded in killing myself and missing something like this. I looked forward, now seeing Kila watching me with a smile.

"Here," she then suggested. "I'll move us very carefully and coast. Now put out your left hand."

Kila shut the craft's wings off for a moment in their down position as we drifted alongside one sky whale. I reached out my hand and touched its side. Not only was its skin the smoothest thing I had ever touched, but its energy . . . the harmony I felt was awe-inspiring, the music of heaven itself. I closed my eyes and quietly cried as I just allowed it to wash through me. Somehow, I even sensed gratitude from the whale for our contact.

All too soon, my contact was broken as our craft drifted away from the whale. Both whales now arced away in their own direction as Kila restarted the craft's wings and turned us around back towards the city.

"It's so peaceful," I tearfully sighed. "And to think my kind almost destroyed all this."

"We've forgiven you," Kila gently said as she reached behind her and laid her hand upon mine again as it rested on an armrest inside the craft. This time, I could tell she was tearing up a little right along with me.

"How could we have wanted to do that though? Just so we could breathe our own air here?" I continued to wonder. "And how could your kind have invited us to settle here alongside you after we wanted to do such a thing?"

"How could we not have?" she asked in return as she continued to both pilot the craft we were in, and hold my hand. "It would have been wrong to let your kind just starve, suffocate and die in space."

"But we were starting to suffocate and kill your kind with what we were doing," I sadly noted.

"Yes you were," she confirmed. "I was even one who was suffocating during what your people were doing."

"Why aren't you just pitching me out of this craft and letting me fall to my death for something like that?" I openly wondered.

"Where would that get me?" she replied. "It wouldn't be forgiveness . . . and it wouldn't bring me harmony. My essence, even my energy, would be harmed and stained with regret, guilt, and horrible memories of you falling helplessly for the rest of my life. I don't want that. Why would anyone want to do that or allow that to happen, and carry such a burden for life?"

"My kind has before," I sighed with regret.

"But you don't like that, do you?" she noted, glancing back at me as she continued to pilot the craft.

"No, I don't," I admitted. "But I don't know how to change who we are . . . who we have been."

"You are here now, with us," she gently assured. "Let this be a new start for your kind. Leave your old, unproductive ways that have hurt you behind, just as we have as well."

"Your kind was once as we have been?" I asked. "Only thinking of ourselves and our immediate needs? Even violently pursuing them?"

"And more," Kila confirmed. "We almost destroyed ourselves once as well. But surviving war, we left many of our old ways behind and chose to live in harmony with this world, because otherwise we just couldn't have survived here on this planet. We would have ruined it, too. But unlike you, we didn't have the ability to identify another planet to move to, nor the means of space travel to get there. You had advantages over us in that."

"To your kind's detriment though," I noted.

"Not now," she reassured. "Our peoples are both going to benefit, share and grow together. And it starts right here, between you and I."

"Kila . . ." I sighed in admiration as something made me want to do more than just touch Kila's hand. I wanted to just embrace her in joy, even from behind in the craft, for feeling such harmony, for her forgiveness and even reassurance. But as I thought that, her hand withdrew again.

Suddenly, I felt more isolated once more, and I didn't want to be. Something in me desired to become a part of all that was around me as we continued to fly amid the wonders around us. Slowly, I was discovering a reason to live again. But it wasn't to just exist in the Earth columns of the Elder Complex, or even out in the human habitat I could see under construction out among the surface cloud layer beyond the edge of the city near us.

I wanted to be out here, free . . . among the Terrians now. I just did.


	4. Chapter 4

_Here's a Valentine's Day extra for everyone . . . new chapters from both my current stories, Planet Threat from Battle for Terra, along with Taming a Heart: Change of Ages from the film How to Train Your Dragon._

_Enjoy!_

— _Norwesterner_

* * *

Over the next few days after our sky whale encounter, Kila seemed to withdraw from me. "I have to see other patients," seemed to be her excuse as she would just leave me in my room for good parts of the day. We didn't go out again, and she didn't spend as much time with me, even talking.

"Everything alright?" I'd ask occasionally.

"Fine," she'd initially respond, but after a while she wouldn't even do that. She rarely touched me much, coming to seem to be almost afraid to now for some reason.

A few nights later, Kila and I were dining quietly on either side of my tent in my room, enjoying more of the large bowl of forgon she had made a few days ago.

"A good, easy meal, isn't it?" I remarked trying to restart our conversation again.

"Yeah," she sighed. "A bowl like this usually lasts me a week," as she almost picked at her plate of it without eating hardly any outside the tent, while I had cleaned mine bare. "Goodnight," she then decided, seemingly all too soon as she rose from her chair, donning her mask again as she first collected her own plate, fork, and the forgon bowl, and then coming into the tent to collect mine. "I have some things and reading I should catch up on," she noted without looking at me. "And you should rest some more. Your body is still recovering from that Omega gas you breathed."

"I know," I sighed, lying back in my small bed. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, you're getting better," she assured. "By the way, Earth Council and the Eldership have sent us some materials on the exchange we're a part of. I'll go through them tonight while you rest, and we'll share them sometime tomorrow, alright?"

"Sounds fine to me," I accepted. "I'm not much for reading what we call paperwork anyway. If you just want to summarize it all for me, I would be very, _very_ grateful to you," I emphasized with a smile.

"Goodnight, John," she smiled back faintly, turning out my light.

Of course, I had forgotten to use the needs chamber. So I got up in the darkness, or rather the very dim light provided by other Terrian dwellings nearby outside my window along with one of the crescent moons, as I groped for my respirator and put it on before exiting the tent. As I rounded the corner from my room though, I heard sobbing, unfortunately coming from the needs chamber I was wanting to use. I saw Kila through the doorway, her hands clasped either side of the sink, and her head hanging down. It was almost like she was physically throwing up as well as emotionally vomiting. Part of me wanted to go to her, but feeling a mixture of empathy and respect, I let her be as I quietly returned to my room. My using the chamber could wait until morning . . . or at least a few hours.

_Those sky whales,_ I mused to distract myself instead as I settled back into bed and closed my eyes. I had seen a couple more pass right outside my window earlier in the day, even putting my respirator on so I could stick my head out the window and watch them go. I should have gone and found my hoverchair and went out to fly with them. But I wasn't totally comfortable using it by myself yet, and I was also a little scared of what would happen if my respirator failed for some reason, and there was no help or oxygen nearby.

I hoped I would dream of the whales tonight though, maybe even be one of them.

— — — — —

When I awoke the next morning, I found Kila just sitting in her chair at her table outside my oxygen tent, looking at a little wooden figure of one of her kind that was perhaps fifteen centimetres long. She just stared at it as she held it in her hands.

"What is that?" I asked, looking at it as well from my bed.

"It is a representation of my mate, Jorn," she replied.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"I've forgiven you," she noted as she continued to look at it, " . . . or rather your kind."

"What was he like?" I gently asked, preferring to focus on that rather than what my kind had done.

"He was kind, quiet, and very attuned with my energy and essence," she said. "The harmonies we shared . . . I miss them."

"I understand that," I empathized.

"You do?" she asked, now turning towards me.

"Yeah, you feel a peace with the right person," I said, feeling the desire to show rather than just tell her I understood, " . . . an incredible peace. You find yourself blending with them, taking on their likes and dislikes . . . wanting their preferences instead of your own."

"You do understand," she tearfully said, now rising from the seat and donning her respirator.

"Please bring that figure of Jorn with you," I invited.

She seemed incredibly moved at my invitation. Her eyes just conveyed that deeply as she just floated, with tears streaming down her face. Clutching the figure in front of her chest with both her hands, she floated into my oxygen tent.

"Sit beside me," I invited, sitting up in my bed and moving to one side, making some of the pillows she had given me available to her.

"I . . . I don't know," she now hesitated.

"Have you been healed yourself yet?" I asked with a growing suspicion, given her behavior over the last few days and how I'd seen her last night.

"You know my secret," she now confessed looking away and choosing to sit down on a chair next to my bed, rather than on the bed itself. "I have given my own healing energy to a good number of patients. But I have never accepted another's energy, other than from my mother when I was young, and from Jorn. The harmony, especially with Jorn, was just too perfect. Accepting anyone else's energy has felt like it would be a poor substitute . . . one that would just leave me aching for him, even more than I already am."

"Healer, heal thyself," I said with a slight smile. "It's an old Earth saying. It actually goes, 'Physician, heal thyself'."

"That's just what I've been trying to do," she replied with her own sad smile. "But we healers are not supposed to do that. Word reached my fellow healers and the elders that I had not been to see a healer myself yet since losing my mate. The elders are deeply concerned with the needs of the rest of us, so Doron paid me a visit himself. He already knew I didn't want to see another healer, and knew why as well. You will find keeping secrets here for any length of time can be very difficult," she sniffed with a laugh. "Instead, he asked me to participate in this exchange program, saying it would be good for me. After your suicide attempt almost a week ago now, he called me in quickly, to be your healer. But as I was about to proceed through the door into your Exam Room, Doron told me that you were also my partner in the exchange program. Like you've said, I wanted to refuse, too. But something caused me to just trust him, and trust this. So here I am, and here you are."

"But I miss Jorn," she now started crying. "I miss him and his energy so much."

"Kila, come to me," I just invited with open arms, feeling intensely for what she was now suffering, knowing that same pain so terribly well myself. "I will not give you energy, for I have none of your type to give. So I'm safe that way."

"Yes," she wept in realization as she now rose out of the chair and just floated over to me, into my arms. She continued clutching the tiny figure of her mate tightly against her chest with both her hands as I now just held her sobbing against me. I allowed myself to cry as well as I held her somewhat more tightly, just finally letting her latest surge of energy open me up and do in me whatever it wanted to. We both basically 'emotionally vomited' against each other for the longest time that morning. Ohh, it was the best cry I've ever had . . . one that I needed so much. I could tell Kila needed it just as much.

"You're so warm," she finally sniffed later, still lying against me as I sat up in bed. Our crying had finally subsided, and we were now resting from our labors of emotionally healing together.

"Thank you," I smiled, "and you're so soft. But we both noted these things our first day here, remember?"

"Am I cold to you?" she asked.

"You're not cold," I decided, tuning into my sensations of her presence against me. "But you're not warm, either . . . just soft. But you seem to be warming up against me here."

"Yeah, I guess I am," she sighed, truly relaxing against me. "This is good, better than any healing energy transfer from another could ever have been."

"I feel . . . cleansed somehow," I agreed. "I finally just let your energy open me up and make me cry . . . push all that toxic energy right out of me."

"Oh you're not done yet," she said, looking up at me with her large, purple eyes with their black pupils. "Toxic energies are not purged in one sitting, otherwise healers like me wouldn't have much work at all to do. They will come back again and again, until the essence is truly healed."

"Regular treatments then?" I asked.

"Regular treatments," she confirmed.

"Just like this?" I followed up.

"Yeah, just like this," she finally smiled. "I am prescribing them for myself, too, okay? So see? This 'physician' is healing herself."

"Well," I replied, "I'd like to think I'm having something to do with it."

"You are, John. Thank you," she smiled as she settled nicely against me some more, and we both leaned back against my stacked pillows and sighed.

"You're welcome, Kila," I quietly replied. I enjoyed holding her now . . . this healing being, this feminine presence. I didn't feel alone in the world anymore. This time, she stayed, not seeming to need to go off anywhere or do anything. We now just relaxed together, eventually even faded pleasantly off into a nap against each other.

I finally felt good, really good . . . for the first time since Kaila had died.

— — — — —

"John . . ." I heard my name called as I opened my eyes, and felt a three-fingered hand gently transferring an increasingly familiar and welcome energy to me again. "It's dinner time," Kila said. "You've slept all afternoon. I have somewhat as well. Would you mind the remaining forgon one more time tonight? It's just ready, and we could finish off the bowl of it. I can make other things for you if you want though."

"Your forgon? Perfect," I just smiled.

She just moved to hug me now.

"Whoa!" I said, suddenly feeling a really intense surge of energy from her. It not only made my eyes instantly water and cry, but sent a fairly strong tingling sensation all through me.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she replied, both backing away from me a little and turning her energy way down. "It kind of instinctively happens when my kind feels really good or grateful."

"No, I don't mind," I assured. "I'd just never experienced it before. I wasn't prepared for it, that's all."

"So, you don't mind me, as you say in your language, 'shocking you', then?" she asked, brushing my bare arm with a finger and turning up the 'voltage' just a little again.

"No," I smiled with involuntary tears in my eyes, while taking a bit of a sharp breath at the sensation. "I don't mind. Actually for me, it's a little like eating spicy food for the first time . . . food with very sharp, intense tastes to it. Kaila introduced me to that. At first, I had difficulty with it, but soon, I was liking it. Now, I miss it."

"Well," Kila warmly suggested, still 'zapping' me a bit as she continued tracing her finger up and down my arm, "how about after we finish the forgon tonight, we go through the joint list from both your Council and my Elders of human foods that have been found safe for my species, and you pick what we'll eat for dinner tomorrow night."

"I'd like to get up and cook it with you if I could," I requested.

"Let's see how you do standing and walking around the rooms here tomorrow," she offered.

"Deal," I smiled as I drew her into a hug again. This time she extended her arms around me as well, sighing as she did.

"How about I come right back with dinner?" she then decided, not wanting to linger in my embrace this time.

"Alright," I replied, freely releasing her, but finding myself wishing she had lingered just a bit longer.

Soon, she was back with a tray that held the familiar large serving bowl and two plates, along with two thin wooden cups of liquid.

"What's this?" I wondered, picking up one cup of liquid and looking at it, seeing it wasn't water this time, as it had a dark blue color to it.

"It's nifron, what you would call a plant extract," she explained. "We do different things with it . . . age it in the sun for different lengths of time, add things to it. It's a very flexible drink."

"So it's like what we would call tea? Or is it closer to a wine?" I wondered as I tasted some. "Definitely wine . . ." I decided, trying to avoid choking on it as I swallowed, "and a strong one at that."

"Sorry," Kila apologized as she put a hand on my heart. "I should have given you the weakest variety. I can water it down, or give you water if you like."

"Nah," I decided. "I'm on a cultural exchange and immersion here. If I grew to like my wife's spicy cooking, I think I can come to like this . . . maybe."

"Don't torture yourself," she requested with a smile.

"I'm not," I gently assured, taking another sip and swallowing it with more ease this time. "But let's eat. See you over at your table."

"Not tonight," she decided, as she now raised a forkful of her forgon to feed me with.

"What about you though?" I asked. "You can't eat in here."

"Would you come out to my table, and feed me, after I'm done feeding you in here?" she suggested. "It's actually an optional exercise they're suggesting in the exchange materials . . . trying out mutual dependency, but only for those of us who want to. The elders' notes say it can be very disarming and powerful, that once you've fed a former enemy with your own hands, it becomes very difficult to look at them that way again."

"Kila, I would be honored if we could feed each other that way," I replied as I then opened my mouth to accept the food she was holding in her fork. She gently placed the food into my mouth as we just looked at each other. The elders were right. It was powerful . . . for both of us.

"I haven't seen these materials yet," I said after I swallowed the forkful she had given me.

"There are papers in both our languages," she replied as she gathered another forkful of food. "Let's go over them after dinner here, as we give ourselves another treatment."

"I can't read very well when I'm crying," I noted with a smile, "and somehow, I don't think you can either."

"Okay, afterwards," she quipped with her own smile.

"I like this," I said as she fed me another forkful of forgon.

"I do, too," she agreed warmly.

Before long, I was donning my respirator as we then sat up in chairs at her table outside my oxygen tent. I chose to hold her hand as I fed her forkfuls of food with the other. The energy she was continuing to pass to me through her hand was interesting, something I was growing used to and surprisingly comfortable with, even desiring now. We both laughed at times, especially while she allowed me to feed her cup of nifron to her. It wound up being just too funny, her trying to accept a drink as I held her cup.

"The only thing missing here is a candle," I said as I fed her another forkful of the gelatinous salad.

"What's that?" she couldn't resist asking with her mouthful. "Wait," she then said, "we have those. Be right back." She then flew out of the room, soon returning with a lighted candle on a wooden holder, setting it down on the table between us.

"I'm guessing you don't call them candles," I noted.

"You couldn't pronounce what we call them . . . at least right now," she smiled.

"Interesting," I noted as I looked at the candle. "It burns much like ours do in oxygen."

"Hydrogen, chlorine gas and carbon, with some oxygen, versus mostly oxygen and carbon," she noted as we held hands once more. "The chemical reaction is much the same, therefore so is the combustion, and the flame. There is more than just one way for flames, even life, to exist."

"I know," I admitted, lowering my head a bit. "We've been defining life on our own terms for so long, even thinking ourselves to be at the centre of the universe once. That whole belief system, that racial memory, allowed us to do what we did."

"A candle can still be a candle," she replied with understanding as we both looked at it, "even without much oxygen. Just because it doesn't require what you think it should doesn't mean that it can't burn, or shouldn't be allowed to."

"Hey, I'm on your side about all that," I replied, looking at her now. "Kaila was, too."

"I know. I'm sorry," she apologized. "We both have biases. I should know better though. We both should really."

"We're learning here," I assured, holding her hand some more. "But how did you know what I was referring to then, with the candle?" I casually wondered as I picked up a final fork of food to feed her with as I took her hand again. She accepted the food and quietly chewed for a minute.

"John," she finally seemed to deflect as she swallowed and held my hand tighter, her energy surging some, "you are more than just a guest, or an exchange partner to me. You are also becoming my friend."

"You are, too," I said with tears in my eyes from her increasingly strong energy.

"Could I clear this away and we just have our treatment for now?" she asked.

"Okay . . ." I hesitantly replied, wondering why she was changing the subject so fast.

Kila now removed her hand from mine and proceeded to clear the table between us. "Go ahead and sit up on your bed, or use the needs chamber if you need to. I'll be back shortly, alright?"

"Alright," I accepted with a mixture of caution and suspicion. Something was going on, but it didn't feel right to press Kila at the moment.

— — — — —

After dinner, our second treatment of just curling up together on my bed inside the tent was much calmer and less traumatic for both of us than the first had been.

"We're hardly crying at all here this time," I noted as my eyes remained surprisingly dry.

"Must not be much toxic energies in either of us. I certainly can't feel much in you," she replied as she caressed her free hand across the side of my head, gently down my neck right shoulder over my olive green t-shirt and finally my bare arm, seeming to give me a thorough 'energy' examination.

"You're just curing me way too quickly, healer," I quipped as I held her warmly.

"No," she said. "You're curing yourself, too, by placing your focus where it is."

"Caring about you," I felt emboldened to say.

"Caring about the living is where health can be found," she observed to my surprise, seeming to openly accept my expression towards her as she looked into my eyes before resting her head against my shoulder and neck and looking out through a nearby window. "Caring about the dead . . . that only takes energy from you, and brings sickness to the essence, because the flow is only one way, and not two."

"I wish you could have your Jorn back," I said holding Kila more tightly and finding myself crying more now.

"There," she sniffed seemingly with a smile as we held each other closer, "we've found some more toxic energies. And I wish you had your Kaila, John. But somehow, I can't wish you had gone with her, because you're needed here. I wouldn't be healing like this myself if you weren't here."

"But if both our mates were still here," I noted, "we wouldn't need to be healed at all."

"Then, we'd be missing out . . . on this," she said as she looked up at me.

"Yeah, we would," I realized as I looked into her eyes as well. "I don't know how I feel about that."

"It just is then," she suggested as she caressed my face with her hand. "Just let it be there. Don't try and judge or classify it, just let it be."

"Acceptance," I said.

"It's a real key to harmony," she replied.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It is."

Suddenly, I found myself wanting to kiss Kila, but I held myself back. Her respirator mask was in the way for one thing, but I had to remind myself she was a Terrian, and I was human. A fish couldn't be attracted to a bird, yet I was increasingly and undeniably attracted to Kila.

"Let's get some sleep," I decided, shutting these new feelings down.

"You don't want to go over the exchange guidelines and suggestions?" she asked. "I was kind of looking forward to going through those with you, in English."

"English?" I wondered. "Wouldn't you rather read Terrian?"

"I like English," she decided. "It's an interesting language, and I enjoy understanding it through what your robot did to me, as much as I enjoy my own language. It's something new for me to explore."

"You want to do that then? Read those guidelines?" I asked.

"I would. I'll be right back with your English papers," she decided as she then floated off my lap and out of my arms to go get them.

_This could be dangerous,_ I thought to myself with a sigh while she was out of the room. _What's the harm?_ the other side of me questioned though. _Coming together_, it continued_ . . . it's what both our peoples want now. And what could be better than coming together as Kila and I seem to be?_

"Here it is," she said, coming back in with several bound sheets of paper, not even bothering to don her respirator mask until she was already inside the tent. "Yours is on these sheets, mine is on a scroll."

"You didn't bring that scroll for me to see then," I noted.

"That's because I brought you a milder nifron here, nicely warmed," she said, now producing a wooden cup of it from behind her back as she smiled. "It's what I like to go to sleep with."

"You have one for you?" I asked.

"Let's keep going with our dinner idea, and share this one," she suggested as she floated onto my lap again.

"But we can't share it in here," I sighed. "At least you can't."

"Oh yes I can. Watch," she assured as she now briefly took off her respirator mask and took a good sip of the hot drink. "There," she said, putting on her mask again. "Neither of our species can breathe while we drink anyway, so what's the problem? Here, try some."

I could only smile as I accepted a sip as she held the cup to my lips. "Much better this time," I sighed. "And you're right. It is a great bedtime drink. It relaxes me, too."

"Then it's hot nifron every night, for both of us," she decided.

I looked with reservation downward as she said that.

"Okay, this is your healer here," she perceptively queried. "What's going on?"

"Were you like this with Jorn?" I asked, looking at her.

"He could get nothing past me," she assured. "Why do you ask?" she now said more softly though.

"I'm not sure this is right," I said, looking down again.

"Sure what is right?" she asked, but not with concern so much as interest now.

"What I'm beginning to feel about you, Kila," I said, looking at her uncertainly.

"Then there's something here that I know, and you don't. A couple things actually, that you should know about," she then said as she now settled beside me and beginning to flip through the pages of the document she had brought with her.

"What?" I asked, looking at her.

"Here it is, towards the bottom of page five," she said as she began to read as I looked at it with her. "Quote, 'While this is not being done in all cases, each human-Terrian pair in your portion of this exchange has been selected in accordance with the gender and other orientations and known preferences of each participant, as well as the consideration of other commonalities, backgrounds and factors noted previously. Wars within each of our peoples have been ended in the past through interpersonal bonding. So, both the Earth Council and the Terrian Eldership invite and encourage, but do not direct or compel in any way, each of you to explore such possibilities for lasting bonding together openly. Know that human-Terrian couples will not be able to procreate directly, but are welcome to adopt children, and that many other sacrifices in lifestyle and other matters may be involved.

"'Both leaderships,'" she continued, "'recognize however that to maintain completely separate communities, living arrangements, and lifestyles is not healthy or conducive to lasting peace and harmony on the planet we all share now. You have been selected for this portion of the agreed-upon larger exchange program because you either have no intimate attachment among your own people, or because you have lost such an attachment. We encourage you to explore and discover what might be possible between you and your partner, so that through you and your example and personal experience, all of us can come to know harmony and unity, together.'"

"Oh my God," I sighed in amazement.

"I know," Kila agreed beside me.

"But I hadn't yet volunteered for this," I noted.

"I hadn't either, John," she echoed as she looked at me now. "As I said, the first time I was informed you were my selected partner was right outside the Exam Room, after your suicide attempt before I was asked to go in and begin healing you."

I just looked down now.

"I read this for the first time as I went to bed last night," she continued. "I should have let you see this then, too. But I needed time to adjust to the idea myself. How do you feel about it though, John? And I want you to be honest. I can take whichever direction you feel is right. But I'm glad we're opening this conversation now however."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I'm beginning to feel about you, the way I can sense energetically that you feel about me," she replied.

"How?" I asked. "How do you know, from me?"

"John, you're an engineer," she smiled. "You know energy can flow in two directions. Even your feedbacks to my energy have told me far more than you've wanted to. To put it in human terms," she said, laying a three-fingered hand over my heart, "I've known your heart and your mind, every time I've touched you. It's how I could sense your essence was so critically ill and wounded in the Exam Room. It's how we can't easily keep secrets here, because each handshake, each hug or even touch, can let us know almost anything the other is thinking. You don't have that capability with me, so I have to be more honest and forthcoming with you than I have been, and I am sorry that I have not until now. I'm both just not used to having to express things out loud as much as this, and I also sensed you might not be quite ready for it or able to accept it."

"That's how you knew about things like violins . . . and what I had seen being done to your people on the Ark when I was examining the hoverchair, even candles tonight," I realized, connecting the dots.

"Yes, John, it is," Kila confessed. "To you, that is invading your privacy, your private thoughts. And I am sorry I did that without really telling you I was. That was wrong of me."

"Yeah, it was," I said, now looking at her beside me.

"Would you forgive me?" she asked.

I looked down for a second, and then back at her. "Yeah, I would," I replied. "I forgive you."

"I'm sorry," she reiterated.

"I can't really be mad at you," I almost shrugged.

"I know," she replied.

I smiled and laughed a little now. She did, too.

"I know you're interested in me though, John," she then continued, " . . . and I'm ready to explore it. I want to explore it."

I looked at her again. Kila was beautiful, and very feminine—from her face and large purple eyes with their black pupils, to her soothing voice, her modest but noticeable chest under her bodysuit and very slender waist which tapered outwards again to what might be considered her hips, before her flat, tadpole-like tail took over the rest of her. She was very mermaid-like, and ancient sailors of Earth had long been falling in love with mermaids in stories and legends. But Kila was here, right next to me. She was Terrian, and we couldn't even breathe the same air. I knew she was aware I was looking her over and considering all this. She was letting it happen though, just looking patiently at me as we sat back against the pillows on my bed together.

Our eyes met again. She knew every thought I was thinking—every doubt, even musings I wasn't really comfortable with myself. Yet Kila kept looking right at me, openly. She was accepting all of me, every last part. I had never been known so deeply, so terribly personally . . . not by my parents, and not even by Kaila. It was as if an angel, who could see right through me, readily perceiving both the good and the bad, was choosing to sit down with me anyway, inviting me to explore a love and intimacy of the mind and soul I had never known before, and would probably never know with one of my own kind.

_I'd be giving up a lot,_ I couldn't help thinking to myself, _and she's shorter by a quarter metre._ Kila kept looking right into my eyes anyway.

"How do we kiss?" I finally asked, breaking the silence, and posing what I thought was an irresolvable question, given our vastly different breathing needs.

"Like this," she said now removing her mask and just bringing her lips to mine. I felt her energy just surge into me. I cried again, but not nearly as much. It was gentle and joyous. There was no difficulty, resistance or discomfort. It was a kiss, a real kiss.

We embraced now, fully, as we kissed, just allowing ourselves to become the companionate essences together that we were. That was it . . . a switch had seemingly flipped within and between us. I was now hers, and she, amazingly, was mine.

"Wait," I said breaking it however. "Mask on here, but my overwhelming crying during earlier energy contacts . . ."

"That was your resisting them," she said literally reading my mind as she returned her mask over her mouth. "Trying to keep yourself under control, and keep me out. Healers like me must know our patients' minds if we are to truly help them heal . . . identifying the causes and sources of their pain, and helping them resolve them. We healers just have a more intense ability to do this than others of my kind do."

"So I have no secrets from you?" I queried.

"As long as we are touching directly skin to skin, and you're feeling energy from me, none," she confirmed. "Anything you think, I can perceive, too, right along with you. So you might as well give up trying to plan surprises for me . . . like you're thinking right now, because it'll just be futile."

I could only laugh. "Even my wife didn't know me like this," I sighed. "Although she seemed to come close."

"Yes, she did come close," Kila agreed.

"What about you though?" I asked.

"Will I miss not being known by you, like I was by Jorn?" she replied. "As I've said, I don't want a relationship like I had with Jorn, because no one can replace him to me. They can only succeed him. Part of my essence will always be his. Part of me will always be of him. I hope you can accept that . . . actually I'm sensing you're already beginning to. But since he was taken away from me, I'm ready to experience something different, something new. And that is you, John. You are truly different, and refreshing to me. Every sensation, every thought I've picked up from you is both alien, and yet wonderfully common and familiar at times."

"I wish I was Terrian," I sighed regretfully, holding her nymph-like form in my arms.

"No," she replied. "I'm glad you're human. I will give you my own secret thought here, so you know me, too. Right now, if I could, I'd want to try being human; even though I know I'd be giving up a lot . . . floating, energy, sensing thoughts. But you're so wonderfully different, so wonderfully 'other'. I want to experience that now, John. I do."

"But there will always be walls between us," I cautioned.

"We are gonna find ways over, around, under, or through those walls," she assured. "Together."

"You really want to do this?" I double-checked.

"I do," she confirmed. "For us, even myself, and for both our peoples. This feels right to me, John, so right."

"Do I need to even talk anymore?" I sighed in acceptance now, my thoughts turning to a more practical level. "When we're touching at least?"

"Yes," she said earnestly, moving a hand to my face. "Please yes. Talk to me with your voice, with your touch, and with your mind. I want to experience it all . . . and I'm glad you find me beautiful. Thank you."

"There's no point in trying to hide things anymore, is there?" I smiled.

"Not with me," she smiled under her respirator mask. "There hasn't been since the instant I first touched you in the Exam Room."

"God, the things I thought in there," I regretted as I looked across my bedroom. "I was such a mess."

"It's when I began feeling for you," she assured. "No one, no being, should ever have to feel so bereft and alone, the way you were feeling there. I tried to energetically give you comfort and reassuring thoughts then, but when you weren't responding, I knew the thought perception ran just one way between us, from you to me. It fits though, I give you energy, you give me thoughts . . . a very fair, even wonderful exchange. And yes, you're right . . . we are adults, and I would love to sleep and be kept warm with you tonight."

"You're terrible," I said, starting nonetheless to become somewhat accustomed to her probing of my most private thoughts now.

"It's your humanity, rubbing off on me," she replied. "And this 'bad girl' idea that just passed through your mind? It sounds like fun."

"I'd better go to sleep," I sighed.

"Not before you go to the needs chamber," she noted, reading me all too well again. "But let's call it the bathroom, just because. And no, it took longer than this before I bonded with Jorn, even though we could read each others' essences. I was younger and less self-assured than I am now. I know what I want, and I am ready. You are my path to healing now, John, and I am fully open to that, although though you'll have to ask . . . even just with a thought."

"I'm going to the bathroom," I sighed with another smile, now getting up from the bed.

"And I'll reheat a little more nifron for us, and have everything ready here," she replied.

I then paused briefly, turning back as I stood apart from her in my oxygen tent in the room. "You can't sense anything from me now though, right?" I then double-checked.

"Not a thing," she confirmed. "But I will be suspicious when you won't let me touch you."

"Darn, you can still read my thoughts here!" I sighed, smiling and snapping my fingers in jest as I activated my own respirator before leaving the tent. We both laughed out loud as she floated to me for another wonderful hug, then looking at each other in our respirators, before we briefly went our separate ways.

I had a female in my life again now, even if she was Terrian. And amazingly enough, I had love, real love . . . that I couldn't hide from, even if I'd wanted to. Oh that felt so good. I proceeded to breeze through what I needed to take care of in the 'bathroom', even just holding my breath as I retracted my respirator and quickly brushed my teeth for the first time in a couple days, finding that Kila had even caringly laid out my toiletries for me next to the bathroom sink sometime earlier in the day. Now that was love. But she had probably already picked that out of my brain. After our breakthrough together this morning, Kila had probably set her sights on winning me over, even before I realized that I wanted her.

_I could get used to this,_ I mused as I rinsed my mouth, before wiping it with a Terrian rough cloth towel and putting my respirator back into place for an increasingly needed breath of my air. Soon, I was returning to find her back in my bed, with her respirator on, waiting for me with a fresh steaming cup of nifron.

"Ohh what a sight," I marveled, beginning to just accept and honestly enjoy it all now as I took off my respirator, then slipping into bed next to her and touching her again. "But—"

"I don't change for bed?" she wondered, finishing my sentence for me. "No, we typically don't have separate night clothes. But I'd enjoy trying some out for you, especially the ones you're already having me 'try on' in your mind. Remember, I want to live as human. It's my choice now, okay?"

"What if I wanted to live as Terrian?" she allowed me to ask this time without preempting my question. "Living in a sealed community somehow just doesn't appeal to me. I'd frankly rather live truly free in a place like this, even if it means I have to wear a respirator outside all but one or two rooms."

"That's just what they want us to do here, find ways of living together in each other's communities," Kila warmly replied as she nestled against me, reaching over for the cup of nifron from the table next to the bed and offering me a sip, before raising her mask and taking one herself.

"But," I remembered, "I have a job, even a life waiting for me in that human community."

"Maybe Mike's right though," she reminded me, tapping my memories along with me. "Maybe you could become part of the Eldership, representing the humans and Earth Force."

"I don't know what he and Sharon are going to think about you and I though," I sighed. "The suddenness of this after Kaila's death, you being Terrian."

"They were prepared to nurse you along for months," she echoed, reading my recollections on that. "I wouldn't want that either. I can see why you thought suicide was an acceptable option . . . and John, I couldn't disagree with you on your pain and your reasons for doing that. But know that I am so glad you were saved, and now . . . I wouldn't let you try again. I just wouldn't."

"That's over for me now," I assured with an arm around her. "I promise."

"I know," she smiled, raising her mask again and giving me an affirming kiss on the cheek before replacing it over her mouth. "But with Sharon and Mike, maybe just blame it on me, like you're thinking," she assured, settling against me and using my shoulder as her pillow. "I can read your mind, you couldn't hide your emerging thoughts of attraction from me, we talked, we agreed and decided, it's good and we each know what good relationships are, what's the problem?"

"You make it sound so simple and straightforward," I sighed.

"That's what harmony is," Kila noted.

"Harmony . . . us?" I wondered.

"That's what we're on our way towards," she replied. "And we're off to a pretty good start here, I think . . . for both us, and our peoples."

"Just don't let me knock your mask off in my sleep," I requested.

"I'll be fine," she assured. "I think coughing violently and not being able to breathe would tend to wake me up, don't you? Don't bother to answer that by the way . . . I already know."

"Then know this," I said anyway, drawing her closer to me. "I am ready to explore this with you. I welcome love back into my life. I've found I could no sooner live without love now, than I could without oxygen. It has been painful for both of us to let go of our past loves, but we're doing it, together. So Kila, it feels so good, so very good, to say . . . I love you."

She just pulled her mask off, saying, "I love you, too, John," so that I could see her lips say it before we kissed deeply. "Excuse me," she suddenly said, breaking for a breath from her respirator, before then raising and placing it over her nostrils, which for Terrians are located where the top of noses would be between the eyebrows on humans, which Terrians don't have either. Both Kila and I just smiled and laughed as we resumed kissing while she held her respirator over her forehead and was able to breathe comfortably, even deeply as we kissed each other goodnight for the first time.

"This thing you call 'hair' on you," she finally noted as we ended our kiss, replacing her mask over her mouth again. "It even grows on your face."

"Sorry," I apologized. "I should shave tomorrow."

"Don't shave too fast," she smiled, caressing my stubbly face. "It's interesting. My kind has nothing like this. I kind of like it." She even emphasized her point by taking and holding another breath as she removed her mask, then nuzzling her face against my rough cheek as I just looked at her out of the corner of my eyes.

"Breathe, please," I suggested. "I want to kiss you."

She was soon holding her mask over her nostrils again as we shared another real kiss, with me almost crying in wonder.

Because she could completely read my mind, and because we were both ready, we just relaxed into being a couple now. We just were. As most men do with the females in their lives, I simply found myself surrendering to Kila. It felt like the most natural thing in the world . . . on Terra anyway.

"Bonding, marriage?" she said, reading thoughts even in the back of my mind. "Let's just work towards that, like you're thinking anyway . . . 'open and easy', just like you say, or think here."

"Goodnight, Kila," I sighed, happily though, as I shifted to get comfortable with her snuggling beside me in the small, oval and bowl-shaped Terrian bed that my feet, my whole lower legs in fact, still hung way out of.

"We're getting a bigger bed tomorrow," she assured preemptively. I was slowly getting used to her doing that.


	5. Chapter 5

"Morning," I heard a pleasant voice say as a pair of lips kissed my cheek.

"Kaila," I sighed with my eyes still closed, a growing part of me feeling just overjoyed, as my arms moved to embrace this presence.

"It's Kila," the voice gently replied, as three-fingered hands moved to soothe me. "You're on Terra, John."

I now closed my eyes tightly, almost crying again.

"It's alright," Kila assured now moving to embrace me tightly in bed and flowing energy to me, knowing, even feeling what was going on inside me. "I woke up feeling almost the exact same way a little while ago, thinking I was back with Jorn. Could you hold me, too . . . please?"

"Kila . . . of course," I said tearfully. "Come here close. I love you, I do."

"I love you, too, John," she sniffed as we embraced each other tightly and we both cried openly again.

Our tears diminished almost on their own a few moments later. "I'm glad I have you to cry with," I sniffed. "Plus to have that energy of yours just open me up, and even have just no way to hide what I'm thinking from you. It's all the most freeing, wonderful thing I've ever known."

"I like knowing you, John," Kila replied. "And I'm glad I'm on a level beside Kaila, but not replacing her inside you. I just wouldn't want to."

"I'm even glad you know that," I smiled as I held her close while we both finally breathed a sigh and relaxed some more in bed together.

"Kila?" we both heard from the doorway to her home, the air being so temperate and the society so peaceful, that Terrians didn't even have doors at the entrances to their homes, or glass in their windows.

"Good thing I'm dressed!" she whispered to me as she quickly rose up. But then she stopped and floated back down to me. "I love you," she said, raising her mask again and giving me a quick surprise kiss.

"Love you, too, Kila," I smiled as I let her up afterward.

"I'll be back soon with some morning nifron," she assured in a whisper.

"Morning nifron?" I wondered.

"Yeah, we just add some of what you would consider stimulants to it, and it's morning nifron," she quietly explained. "I told you, it's a very flexible drink."

I just smiled.

She then called more loudly towards her front doorway in Terrian, presumably telling whomever it was that she was coming, before she floated out of my tent. I just enjoyed watching her body and relatively thin tail undulate as she turned and moved down the hallway.

Once she had left, I decided to get up out of bed as well, realizing I was still wearing the same Earth Force standard issue olive green t-shirt and black thermal pants for a week now, ever since I had come to Kila's home. I really wanted a change of clothes . . . these were getting itchy, and I was craving a bath or shower in a decent sized tub. I supposed I could wash both myself and my clothes in the tub I had available in Kila's home though. I was guessing Terrians fortunately perhaps didn't have much of a sense of smell, as Kila hadn't said anything yet. But in an oxygen environment, I certainly did. At least my brown hair was so greasy now that it just lay down on my head, and the stubble on my face . . . I don't know how Kila was able to stand to touch or kiss my cheeks or jaw.

I put on my respirator almost like it was a sock though as I stood up. It was coming to feel strangely normal to just activate the air piece in front of my mouth before I left my tent. I peered around the edge of the doorway from my room to see who Kila's visitor was. I relaxed and decided to join her when I saw it was Doron.

"Good morning, John," he preemptively greeted me before I had a chance to as I now walked up beside Kila, putting an arm warmly around her, which she accepted. "I just thought I would come and check on your progress."

"I hope Kila's already told you I am progressing very well," I smiled. "And," I said looking at her as she smiled at me, " . . . we've decided to explore, and even pursue, the relationship guideline."

"That is so good, John, and Kila," Doron replied with both warmth and seeming relief. "I cannot tell you how important what you are exploring is to both our peoples."

"Why?" I asked with curiosity.

"Some of your people are already beginning to grow unsettled," he replied. "They have been living for weeks in our underground complex. We are working to make their community on the surface ready for them as quickly as possible, but many have not experienced our people living and relating among them. We need you as examples, to show that humans and Terrians can live together. Plus, Joe asked me to tell you he could use you back helping him."

"He needs an administrator now, not an engineer or an ark commander," I sighed.

"He needs you, John," Kila echoed beside me as she looked up at me. "He needs us, both of us. Besides," she smiled, "you're wanting a change of clothes and a good shower anyway . . . but no, John, I can't."

"Can't what?" I asked.

Kila just briefly put her face to my chest and drew in a breath through her nostrils, before pulling back and smiling at me. I just moved and embraced her tightly. We were developing an understanding all our own.

— — — — —

Before long, we were riding in a large elder ship with Doron back to the underground Elder Complex, with me having reached the ship as it hung in the sky outside of Kila's front doorway using my hoverchair. To me, these large, tan-colored patrol vessels the elders used seemed somewhere between an old-style submarine and an ancient Viking long ship from Earth. These Terrian ships were both round and fully enclosed with a graceful arc to them, having high ends that looked like the bow and stern of a traditional Earth water canoe. Being an engineer and a student of Earth history, I had studied many types of water and air craft, even though I'd never seen any of them myself. For propulsion though, these patrol vessels had a middle four-bladed rotor like old Earth helicopters to control their vertical positions, and two oar-like pairs of wings on each side that literally rowed through the air and served to push them forward. While the Terrians didn't seem to have much use for sophisticated electronics in their daily lives, with nothing resembling radios or televisions in their homes, these elder ships had advanced plasma panels and displays inside them that put ours to shame. Doron was right . . . we did have a lot to learn from each other.

Kila and I stood together . . . well, she floated . . . watching the city disappear from view through the elder ship's large, segmented round front window, as we sailed out over the planet's lower cloud layer. Even though my t-shirt and pants had constituted off-duty casual wear on the Ark, I was still feeling somewhat under dressed now. But with most Terrians wearing what seemed to be the equivalent of leotards, with even bared sides in their clothing, which was one thing I was really beginning to enjoy about having my arm around Kila . . . I wasn't feeling all that embarrassed.

"The first test of us," Kila said, looking out the ship's front window with me as we now descended through the clouds and approached the landing dome at the Elder Complex.

"You think so?" I asked.

"I know what you do," she replied with her arm around me as well, floating beside me just a little lower than eye level.

"You know me better than Kaila did then," I noted.

"No," she answered to my surprise. "I know you differently, not better. Besides, I still have a lot to learn."

"As do I," I echoed as the ship now landed on the circular platform within the dome.

The platform the ship landed on then lowered us to the cavernous hangar below, and the ship's side port opened. Doron and the elders accompanying him just floated out ahead of us, gently descending through the air to the hangar floor. A stairway was positioned for my benefit though. Kila could have simply floated out the portal ahead of me, but instead she chose to float down the stairway right at my side, clearly holding hands with me for all to see. I now spotted not only President Chen waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, but my friends Mike and Sharon as well. I knew how Chen would take my choosing to pair with Kila, but she was right . . . Mike and Sharon would be the real test.

"Hello everyone . . . Joe, Mike, Sharon," I said first as even I noticed their eyes all focusing on the hands of Kila and myself clasped together. "You know Kila, she is my . . ."

"Significant other," Kila finished for me, looking to me for concurrence. Putting us right in between boyfriend and girlfriend and being fiancées, she wasn't going to mess around, but just confront things head on.

I smiled outwardly, but silently thought,_ Kila, I'm not sure that was such a good idea . . ._ to her with reservation as I glanced her way.

She then just gave me a gaze that said, _Trust me_.

I felt she was testing me as much or more than we were both testing Mike and Sharon. _Alright,_ I silently accepted back to her. _But let's talk about these things in advance in future, _I added in thought.

Kila looked down for a second, almost like she had been chastised. Now, I didn't want her feeling bad, especially in front of my friends. _I'm sorry, Kila,_ I then thought encouragingly to her. _I'm nervous and uncertain here, too. But I like this mind thing, at least from me to you . . . it's useful!_

Kila couldn't help but burst out laughing with that one. "Excuse me," she quickly apologized out loud. "He just has these quiet ways of making me laugh now." I smiled at her as her laughter now served to ease the tension among all of us somewhat.

"Joe," I then said, looking at him, "have you briefed others among us of the exchange guidelines, especially for my portion?"

"Sorry, John," he replied, seeming to know what my question was about. "It's only been a couple of days. You got them as soon as the final language was concluded between the Council and the Eldership. It's available for others to see, but it's still getting around. You're the first . . . and only pair, so far."

"I see," I sighed, looking down as Kila held my hand a little tighter in support. I suddenly realized that in opening the door to a relationship with Kila, I had stuck my neck out . . . way out ahead of the pack now. I had hoped to be able to say that Kila and I weren't alone in what we were exploring—but right now, we were. I was about to say something about being 'Guinea pigs', but Kila gave me one subtle but sharp squeeze on my hand, a clear indication of 'no'. I slipped her another silent glance amid what was now a very awkward moment.

"We were preparing dinner," Sharon invited nervously, "an Earth dinner, to welcome you back, John . . . when we heard you were coming."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Lasagna, with synthetic meat and cheese," she cautiously replied, "but with the last of the real tomatoes . . . that Kaila had given us. We thought you'd enjoy a familiar taste of home."

"Is that on the joint foods list?" I asked both Kila and Chen, looking at them.

"I believe it is," the president replied.

"It is," Kila concurred, looking at me. "I barely figured out how to pronounce that one when I read it. But have you added the cheese yet?" she asked, looking right at Sharon, and having quickly learned what cheese was through tapping my memories of it.

"No, I haven't," Sharon admitted.

"Would you like to try some real local cheese with that?" Kila suggested with a smile. "It just one of the things we make with grondor, what you'd consider milk."

"Okay," Sharon nervously smiled a little.

_Way to go, Kila!_ I deliberately thought to her as I looked at my significant other and smiled. She smiled back, receiving my silent message to her as we just put an arm around each other. I couldn't help but then hit the respirator button on my neck, dropping my air piece for a second, as I gave my partner a warm kiss on the side of the head. Even Mike and Sharon started smiling a little at that.

— — — — —

Soon, Kila and Sharon were working together in the kitchen of the quarters Mike and Sharon shared in one of the Earth columns in the hangar, adding the finishing touches to the lasagna before baking it over a Terrian cooking fire in the corner of the kitchen that Kila was showing Sharon how to use in place of the electric oven from the Ark that Sharon had brought down with them from their old quarters.

"Wow," I heard Kila note to Sharon from the kitchen as my partner added more wood to the cooking fire. "The fire burns even better in your oxygen environment than it does in ours. We'll have to watch the lasagna closely. We don't want to overcook it."

Even with a respirator mask on, Kila was talking and helping in the kitchen as if she were human and had been friends with Sharon for a long time. I was so proud of Kila for all she was doing, that the idea of marrying her now did grow on me. She was Terrian, but my idea of a real soulmate was fast becoming Terrian.

Meanwhile, with me having quickly dropped by to shower and change into my full uniform again in my quarters next door, Mike and I were now entertaining President Chen and Doron in Mike's living area. Joe was able to drop his position and be informal, but Doron seemed to be the same enlightened being whether he was on or off duty. He also excused himself before dinner, saying he was old and could not hold his breath very well as he ate in an oxygen atmosphere. But he did ask for some of the lasagna to take with him and try as his dinner back in Terrian air.

As Doron was in the kitchen getting his portion of lasagna to go, and President Joe was out of the living area for a moment before dinner, Mike hauled me aside.

"John, I have to hand it to you," he quietly said. "You seem recovered, even happy, and you are really bringing all of us together here. But are you serious about Kila? Are you sure, this soon?"

"Mike, you know . . . I am sure," I decided, looking towards the kitchen where she was. "She knows me, inside. She reads my mind, understands and supports me, like no human ever has . . . or could. I'm enjoying being known, and accepted."

"But you can't . . . can you, together?" he nervously whispered.

"No, we can't procreate, if that's what you mean," I smiled, finding myself surprisingly relaxed about the topic. "It's one of the things Kila and I will each be giving up to be together. But the energy she gives me, that we've just begun to share and explore at times . . . it seems like it might come darn close. And since we are the first 'poster couple' here between our peoples, I fully expect we'll have to report on our discoveries there eventually anyway. But before Kila, I was horribly longing for Kaila, even still in love with her. This is a big step up from that. Kila has given me something new to focus on, even enjoy now. And you know, even though she isn't human . . . her soul, her essence, is female, and I am finding her more and more beautiful. I just am. Plus, if what she and I discover together brings peace, unity, even harmony to all of us . . . that makes it even more right."

"Sharon was gonna set you up with a couple of single women here soon, if you wanted," my friend hinted.

"Before my suicide attempt," I then said with surprising candor, "I might have taken you and her up on that. But now . . . I just don't think so. I'd actually miss my mind not being read, not feeling the connection that I do with Kila. I can't hide anything from her. I love the way she thinks, how she cares for me. I look into her eyes, Mike, and I see this companion soul . . ."

"Dinner's ready," we heard Kila call from the kitchen as she proudly carried the baked lasagna to the dining table, wearing human cooking mitts on her hands, as Sharon brought out, what else, a forgon salad.

"You okay?" Kila asked, looking at me as she set the lasagna down on the table.

"I'm fine," I assured, although Mike's offer had seemed to plant something of a doubt in my mind now.

Kila grabbed my hand anyway, looking away like she was almost taking my pulse or temperature. "Could I see you real quick?" she then invited, leading me around a corner while the others looked.

"What is it?" I whispered.

"Look," she quietly sighed, "if you want to try dating those women . . . I won't stop you, or even object."

"They're not you," I decided in front of her, now feeling her energy again. "I like this," I said holding up our intertwined hands together, "what I'm feeling with you right now. I can't feel that with one of my own kind. I just can't."

"John," she smiled beneath her mask as she moved to embrace me.

"Kila," I sniffed as she involuntarily surged her energy again. It was like eating spicy food now . . . really spicy food at the moment here . . . and I was beginning to enjoy it—genuinely, openly enjoy it. "This is right."

She ripped off her mask and gave me a powerful kiss, just letting her 'voltage' surge.

"Mmpppphh!" I exclaimed involuntarily into her mouth with my eyes wide.

"Oh, sorry," she whispered, bringing it down quickly. "Let's get back to dinner here."

"Wait," I said holding her back. "How did you know about Mike's offer? Before you touched me?"

"Your eyes," she replied, " . . . they had an unsettled, almost doubtful look about them. I just had to check it out with a touch. Then when I knew, I wanted to give you your freedom, to date those girls if you wanted to. I know we've been 'moving fast' as your kind says."

I sighed, looking at her. "I am so liking your energy," I said. "That won't change for me now."

Kila raised her mask and gave me a quick kiss again. "That's what I love to hear," she whispered. "But let's have dinner. I'm looking forward to trying human food," she then warmly suggested, replacing her mask as she led us back to the dining table.

With everyone else already seated and waiting for us, I offered Kila her seat first, and then sat down beside her. "Mmmmm," I sniffed as we sat down to my plate of steaming lasagna already laid out before me. "Smells heavenly."

"Well I wouldn't know," Kila replied at first with a smile next to me. "Wait," she then said as she grabbed my hand. "Really?" she then asked looking at me. "Is that what smell is? What this smells like?"

I took another deep whiff over my serving of lasagna in front of me as Kila closed her eyes, trying to fully experience the aroma with me through my mind. She practically cried at what was to her a brand new and very intense sensation.

"You okay, Kila?" even Sharon asked with a little concern as we all sat around the table.

"I've just had my first smell," she tearfully replied. "My first real smell . . . through John. And it's wonderful."

"This," I said to everyone else as I put my arm around my partner, "is why Kila and I are together." I looked at her, and then it just hit me.

_Kila . . ._ I now thought to her. Suddenly, I wanted to have a whole additional side conversation with her. But I really didn't need to, because I already was. Thoughts and awarenesses now just flooded through me. I could tell she was reading each one also as she just looked at me. Finally, she subtly nodded to me, just once.

_You sure?_ I mentally asked her.

She nodded slowly again, never taking her eyes off mine. I could feel everyone else was now staring at us as we gazed at, even into, each other.

_I want to be known like this . . . all the time,_ I decided.

Kila now gently smiled at me. I could even see a tear in her eye.

_But what do I give you?_ I wondered. _What do you get out of us?_

Kila squeezed my hand this time without surging her energy . . . even patting and clasping it with her other hand as well.

I finally broke our gaze, and decided to take the dive, just moving my chair back now and dropping to one knee while never letting go of her hand.

_Kila,_ I thought to her, _you know my mind, my essence, and my heart. So, I ask you . . . soul to soul, before I utter a word._

She slowly moved off her own chair and floated down to my eye level and continued looking at me steadily, before simply nodding again.

"John, Kila . . . you okay?" we now both heard Sharon asking nearby.

Both Kila and I looked down, smiling, before I finally spoke. "This is what happens when minds can be read and shared, when there are no barriers. I had to share my sudden realization, and desire, with Kila . . . and she's just told me through looks and gestures . . . yes."

"John, did you . . . ?" Sharon now queried.

_We'd better do this out loud, for them,_ I smiled in thought to Kila. She burst out laughing as she smiled and nodded back to me. "Kila," I asked, "will you marry me?" I then just took her into my arms, already knowing her answer before she even had a chance to utter her reply.

"Yes," she replied warmly as she held me tightly, surging her energy some, but not too much. "Yes. For us, for our peoples, and for the universes we will discover together, I will marry you John Meyers . . . and I will become Mrs. Kila Meyers."

I was ready to skip dinner at that point.

Kila then took a deep breath, pulled the respirator right off her head and shared a deep, passionate kiss with me for as long as she could. In empathy with her, I wound up holding my breath, too.

Finally, Kila and I ended our kiss as she reached with one hand to put her breathing mask back on. No one else said a thing.

"Kila," I said to them as I looked at her, "she knows me. She can literally read my mind when she touches me. When she told me she could do this, I did have problems with it at first. But soon, I wanted to be known by her, and perhaps before either of us was ready, that knowing has grown into love, and it's something I don't want to do without now."

"John . . . are you sure?" Sharon now asked with concern.

_You're right, Kila,_ I now thought to her. _This is a test of us._

"John and I," Kila now said as she looked at me, "we're saving each other. I was a patient, too . . . right with John. He has been healing me, from my loss, which was just like his, every bit as much as I've been healing him. He understood, even without being able to reach into my mind. He drew me out, forcing me to express myself, and what I was feeling within. I feel like I'm denying him things, even pleasures in life, more than I'm giving him . . . yet he wants me anyway. I love him for that. I can't help it, and I no longer want to help it."

"But when John tried to kill himself," Kila continued feeling the need to meet skepticism with frank admission, "his essence had been gasping at the lack of companionship, shared understanding, and love, like his lungs would be gasping for breath in Terrian air. He was mourning deeply for Kaila, so deeply yet so silently, that it poisoned and almost killed him. Yes, you were around him, but you couldn't reach into him, past his pain, accepting it all with him, as I did. I helped his essence to breathe comfortably again, and he has done the same for me. John and I will never forget our past mates. In fact, we remember and honor them, together. But Sharon, Mike, what would each of you want if you died and the other lived? The other's prolonged misery and longing for you, for at least a set period of time? Or that other's happiness with another, as they looked with gratitude towards you where you now were?"

"Kila has been hurting as much as I have," I now answered as well. "That's what opened me up to her, even our first day together. As damaged as I felt, she needed my understanding and help. That allowed us to begin discovering more together. She is who and what she is, and I love her for all of it. But I know what I'm risking, Sharon. And frankly, I don't care if it ends my career, or even means I go to live with the Terrians, which actually appeals to me now. I know what I want though . . . and it's a life, with Kila."

"I didn't mean to turn you off about it," Sharon replied. "If you thought I did, I'm sorry. I just wanted you to be careful, for both your sakes. It's not easy what you're doing here . . . even if you were both breathing the same air."

"I know what you mean, Sharon," I noted not entirely pleased by what she was trying to delicately hint at, while I was still looking at Kila, who looked at me somewhat chilled and nervous now. _This isn't shaking me,_ I thought to my fiancée. _Don't let it shake you._

Kila blinked her eyes and nodded once.

"Sharon," Joe now added, "if we're going to live here, in lasting peace and harmony with the Terrians, what these two are doing needs to happen. Both Elder Doron and I have been hoping this would start happening, bonding our two peoples together."

"My people may not accept this either," Kila now said. "But that isn't going to stop me now, or us."

"When I was by myself, I tried to commit suicide," I added, looking at Kila. "I haven't even thought about that since this person has been in my life. I'd say that's a pretty good sign right there."

"I'm sorry again," Sharon responded. "It's just a lot to get my head around, in a number of ways. But, let me be the first to offer my congratulations, and support. This is a good, even beautiful thing between you two, it really is."

"John, Kila," Joe Chen then said, "you don't need worry about where you'll live, or what you'll do. In fact, we'd appreciate if you would live, and work, with us. We need you. But I think it would help if we went public with this, as quickly as possible. So could we invite cameras in? This is important, and historic . . . for all of us, both human and Terrian."

I just looked at Kila before me in my arms. "Yes," she simply replied, for both of us.

"Could we eat first though?" I suggested as I offered Kila her seat again, before retaking mine. "I just have a feeling things will get really busy when Joe makes that commlink call."

Kila gave me a nervous glance as everyone started eating. It was a glance I welcomed though as I laid an arm around her briefly, making sure I touched the small patch of midriff on her side that her clothing exposed. This time, I didn't even think of words, just warm feelings I was now finding within me for her. She just smiled and leaned herself against me as we each took our first bites of lasagna.

_Done deal . . . fiancée, mate,_ I finally thought to her. She just gave me a warm zap of energy in response through her side, making my eyes water as I smiled.

Soon, we were all relaxing and enjoying perhaps the first truly Earth/Terrian dinner of lasagna and forgon, with a mild cool nifron to wash it all down with. Kila first tried to hold her breath for long periods without her respirator as she both ate and tried to add at least a few quick words to the table conversation. But before long, she had re-secured her respirator on her forehead over her nostrils, allowing her to breathe, eat and talk comfortably all at the same time.

"Now I'm human!" she joked, proudly having mastered that accomplishment.

"You're you, Kila," I admired next to her. "And I love you, just for that."

"I love you, too," she smiled as we had to angle our heads crossways just right to avoid knocking her respirator out of place on her forehead as we kissed again.

"To Kila," Joe then raised a wooden cup of nifron in toast, "the first Terrian to join our human community. And to John, for bringing her to us. May they both find the happiness together, with us, that they richly deserve."

"To Kila, and John," Mike and Sharon toasted us as well, much to Kila's seeming embarrassment.

"I was actually wanting to live in Kila's Terrian community," I sighed afterward.

"We can 'vacation' there, as you say," my new fiancée proposed. "But, as Joe says, we're needed here, both of us."

"See? She's already my wife," I quipped as I looked at her and held her hand so she'd understand, " . . . because she's right."

Everyone, even Kila, laughed, while also sighing warmly at the truth of it.

"Kila," Joe then invited in his official capacity, "as a resident now in our community, would you accept nomination to a seat on the Earth Council?"

"As long as you allow John to accept a position as a Terrian Elder, if it is offered to him," she replied.

"Oh that's a foregone conclusion," the President replied across the table from us. "Sorry, John, haven't had a chance to tell you that either."

"You had before dinner in the living room, sir," I mildly reminded him, smiling anyway. "But I was looking to slow down here, now that I'm no longer Ark commander."

"Sorry new mission, John, as you can probably see by now," Joe replied between his bites of lasagna. "We're no longer just resettling the Earth community here, we're trying to integrate it with the Terrians, and you and Kila are now at the center of that. I gotta warn you both that it won't necessarily be easy. There is some resistance and cynicism creeping in among our people. We need you both to start countering that right away. That's why we need you with us. Sharon's right though . . . it's tough being fiancées or newlyweds under the best of circumstances. You have it harder, especially as you're the first couple of your kind, among both our peoples."

"We understand, sir," Kila replied as I held her hand.

"You two really mentally linked?" he asked.

Kila and I conspiratorially smiled at each other and then answered, "We . . . are . . . sir," with each of us taking a word of the sentence in quick turn.

"That's a neat trick," he admired.

"It's just one way however," I noted, "from me to her. But I'm learning to read her a little, too, in the ways good couples come to."

"Before it gets too late here," Chen sighed picking up his commlink, "I'd better start making those calls."

Soon, what was supposed to have been a leisurely dessert turned into a stream of Earth Councilors, Terrian Elders, as well as humans with cameras and Terrians with scrolls to write on, all passing through poor Mike and Sharon's quarters. Neighbors and others were drawn in, too, out of curiosity at what was going on that was generating so much attention and activity.

"You sure you don't want us to move this to my place?" I said after Kila and I had reenacted our proposal next to the dining table for what must have been the tenth time before new cameras and scribes.

"No, no," Sharon assured. "We've got the catering handled here."

"Just save us some of that cake," I pleaded. "I haven't had any dessert since before I left the Ark!"

"You should have asked me," Kila noted with surprise.

"Your forgon was sweet enough to almost be dessert," I replied. "So I never really thought about it."

"So that's why I missed that," she realized. "Well, there's one mental note for the future. Sorry we pretty much ate just that for a week though. Guess I'm not much of a cook."

"That's where I can help. But eating forgon with you was wonderful," I assured, gently lifting her mask and kissing her again to emphasize the point as cameras and Terrian scribes crowded around us again to see what perhaps even a month ago would have been an unthinkable sight between our peoples.

— — — — —

After midnight, the crowds eventually died down, and Kila and I were finally able to make it next door to what was now our quarters. Even though we were both tired, my first concern was for her comfort and safety.

"I want at least one room here to have a Terrian atmosphere that you can run to if your respirator has problems of any kind," I said. "I won't risk that failing on you and you having no breathable air within easy reach."

"It's a little late for that, don't you think?" she suggested.

"Nope," I replied, picking up my commlink off our living area coffee table. "Maintenance Detail," I radioed.

"Nguyen, Duty Maintenance," the reply came back.

"This is Commander Meyers," I continued. "Could you send a team to my quarters to punch a closable vent to the hangar bay air and curtain off a room with Terrian atmosphere. I think you may have heard the related news, right?"

"Yes sir," the reply came. "And our congratulations, too, sir. We're on our way."

"Our key teams are on duty around the clock," I smiled, clicking off my commlink. "I know my people, even if I've been out of commission for a few days."

Soon, a small spare room off our living area was curtained off as a Terrian safe room for my fiancée. Kila and I finally got to bed at almost 0400 hours. But, she had a surprise for me.

"Nice to know you brush your teeth, too," I said, hearing her doing that in the bathroom right off our bedroom as I finally relaxed in a decent queen-sized bed for a change, casually reading my electronic plasma pad and dressed in proper pajamas this time.

"I'm using your small brush here," she said with it in her mouth. "We haven't needed to brush our chewing plates in our environment . . . no crevices, like between your segmented teeth. But I'm finding more of a pasty film build-up on mine now, especially after eating. Maybe it's that lasagna. Feels awful. 'Scuze me . . . gotta breathe here."

"That's okay," I smiled. "But what's taking so long in there? It couldn't be just brushing."

"You just stay where you are, mister," I soon heard her warn as she rinsed her mouth. "'Cause I'm coming out . . . now."

"No fair," I smiled as Kila then emerged from the bathroom wearing a flowing nightgown that was a little big for her, but made her look absolutely stunning as she floated into bed beside me.

"Surprise," she smiled. "I borrowed it from Sharon, and I made sure it wasn't one of Kaila's. But you like me in it, don't you?"

"I can't lie to you," I sighed happily. "And I wouldn't even try. But with it bunched and tied up around your waist like that, it makes you look like you're wearing an ancient Roman stola."

Kia reached a hand to touch me in curiosity. "A female tunic. Interesting," she smiled. "So, you're a student of this ancient Rome . . . a fascinating, if somewhat violent culture of Earth's past it seems."

"One of my side interests," I admitted.

"The decadence it was famous for appeals to you, doesn't it?" she probed.

"That's not why I'm interested in it," I almost laughed.

"Ohh yes it is," she playfully assured. "So you like your females a little Roman, huh? I can do that."

"Kila . . ." I sighed, not knowing how to express the deep . . . everything . . . I was feeling for her now. I could only welcome her into my arms as I turned off my pad and laid it aside on a nightstand, while she drew the covers over both of us.

"Your warmth," she sighed as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pressed herself against me for a moment.

"I wish I could turn up my heat for you, like you do your energy," I said softly to her now holding her tightly.

"You are doing just fine," she assured. "But, I've got one more surprise for you," she then smiled, laying her head against the pillow next to me with her respirator over her mouth.

"Really no fair," I protested with another smile. "You're pulling surprises left and right on me here, and I can't even so much as think of one without you knowing all about it."

"You'll enjoy them all," she pledged, "as will I. But remember what I told you that one night about what Terrian couples do turning up their energies together?"

"Yeah . . ." I said, beginning to get an idea of what she had in mind.

"Let's find out what I can do between us," she invited. Kila then silently encouraged me to lie flat on my back as we drew close, while her hands now moved to my neck and head and she started to turn up and fine-tune her 'voltage' in a new way.

I could only surrender to an overwhelming symphony of sensations from her that I had never before imagined possible.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, feeling more refreshed and wonderful than I ever had in my life, I found myself being fitted for a modified Terrian Elder's robes wearing my respirator in a Terrian room, while Kila was offered the option of being fitted for an equally modified human civilian blue suit in the next room with an Earth atmosphere and human tailors. Earth robots were originally going to measure and outfit her, but given Terrian nervousness about complex, self-directed machines, especially our larger robots, Kila asked for human tailors instead. I readily agreed, arranging to bring in a couple of women who enjoyed maintaining old fashioned tailoring skills as a hobby.

As I was being fitted, Doron was counseling me on my new appointment as an elder. But I was having just a little trouble concentrating on what he was saying as I found my thoughts straying back to Kila. Let's just say it was a good thing that he wasn't touching me, and that I was separated from any touch of my Terrian tailors by a couple layers of clothing.

"Normally, a position in the Eldership takes years of training and discipline," Doron noted as my clothiers were finishing a rough fitting of my robes.

"As does a position in Earth Force," I managed to reply, snapping myself back into 'duty' mode. "I understand."

"You're primary role in the Eldership will be as liaison and link between our peoples," he continued. "Joe and I still want you to be Earth Force commander."

"We had discussed disbanding Earth Force," Joe noted beside him, from behind an air piece.

"But I did not think that wise, inviting as that option may be," Doron continued. "Your people need a sense of control over their own lives and community, and a visible equality with us, even as we talk about limiting things like weapons and unhealthy technologies that detract from a peaceful and harmonious existence. We will designate a senior elder to be your counterpart among the elders—an elder 'commander' if you will. As a symbol, you will each wear the uniform of the other's service or force, but with your own service's insignia."

"That's gonna be tricky," I warned, knowing my people and the attitudes among some of them.

"We know," Chen agreed.

"Well, how do I look?" Kila interrupted, floating through the curtained doorway over to me in her new custom-tailored human blue suit as she removed her respirator.

"Overdressed," was my first instinctive reaction. "I much prefer your form-fitting Terrian bodysuits."

"I know," she smiled. "But it'll give you something to look forward to in our off-hours."

"We've got a real task and challenge ahead of us here," I sighed as we each put an arm around the other.

"I know that, too," Kila echoed. "But we're doing it, together."

"John, Kila," Joe added, "while we're all here, I think we need to talk about a wedding or bonding ceremony for you two. Reaction to your engagement has spread like wildfire overnight and this morning, through at least the human community."

"It has drawn notable interest from the Terrian community as well," Doron confirmed in his understated way.

"I'm finding and sensing a majority of humans support it," Joe continued. "But I'm also finding a small number might even violently oppose it. If your bonding could be made a fait accompli, before reactionary elements have a chance to plan or do anything, I think that would be helpful. And Kila, that's also why I'm also moving up your nomination to the Council to this afternoon at three. Just wear what you are, and you'll do fine."

"It's that bad?" I wondered.

"It's that tricky," Chen replied.

"I'm not sure I want to see Kila go through all this," I sighed. "Maybe we should just live with the Terrians. They seem to be a more accepting community."

"John, Kila," Doron now interjected, "Terra . . . all of us . . . need you to be here, doing this. Both of you, and what you two do here, are our most important opportunities for lasting peace and harmony. If we fail, war could erupt again and devastate both our peoples."

"John, we can do this," my fiancée assured me. "I can do this. I'll be okay. I've got you . . . that's what counts. But let's keep you in human clothing for now. Opponents, and even the neutral-minded, need to see their Earth Force commander is still one of them, for now."

"I feel like I'm dragging you into a sort of hell here, Kila," I sighed.

"Turning hells into heavens," she said, "it's what I do as a healer. I did it with you. I can do it here. Besides, we'll just be busy making our own heaven together in the evenings."

"Okay," I accepted, taking her into my arms and holding her tightly. "Okay. I'm proud of you, Kila. I think I've found someone very special here."

Kila now just pressed the button on my respirator collar, dropping my mouthpiece as she then gave me a deep kiss with that delectable sizzle of hers. I kissed her back hard, eagerly as my one hand held the back of her neck under her head tail firmly, now making her sigh with pleasure.

_Like that, do you?_ I queried warmly in my thoughts to her.

"Hmmm, mmmm!" she sighed in agreement as we kissed, while my hand now gave her a massage on the back of her neck and even along the underside of her cranial tail. "Ohh wow," she breathed, breaking off our kiss, holding me tightly. "Even Jorn didn't touch me like that."

_Let's just save this for later,_ I suggestively thought to her, as my hand now migrated down onto her clothed back and we looked at each other again as she hit my respirator button, activating my air piece for me, allowing me to take an increasingly needed breath.

_Yes,_ I thought to her. _Yes. I want this. We can do it, together._

"So, would you two be ready for a wedding ceremony tomorrow?" Chen then interrupted with a somewhat bemused smile.

"I think so, sir," Kila replied for both of us.

"There's just one thing though," he added, his tone becoming more serious. "What we solemnize and celebrate tomorrow between you two needs to last. Any divorce would look real bad, for all of us."

"Joe," I replied, looking at my bride. "I've been through parting at 'til death do you part' once, and I don't ever want to do that again. Kila is it for me, and always will be now."

"And I know what this means to both our peoples," Kila assured as she looked at me as well. "I also know what love and harmony are, and what a promise and vow are, too. I am living as human now, with John . . . and I never want to go back to the way I was, especially alone. Whatever comes up between us, we will work it out. I promise."

"Kila," I smiled, marveling at her pledge.

"For you," she smiled, too, as she briefly gave me a kiss on my cheek this time. "And for everyone else as well. Besides, I have something you like, don't I?" she said moving a hand up to the base of my neck and briefly almost paralyzing me with a pleasurable jolt as I stood.

_You have gotta watch that when we're in public,_ I mentally warned her while nonetheless smiling.

"Make me," she whispered into my ear.

I wanted more moments like this now as I held Kila tightly . . . a lot more.

— — — — —

Soon though, it was time to deal with her nomination to a seat on the Earth Council.

"She is not of Earth!" one council member said in opposition to her candidacy after Chen had introduced Kila and placed her name in special nomination for a seat. "This is still the Earth Council! A separate joint body can be formed to include Terrians. Given all we have lost, humanity still deserves its own voice, and a purely human forum to control its own destiny! This Terrian does not belong on our council!"

It was all I could do to remain in my chair beside President Chen, still in my Earth Force uniform, Chen and I having both agreed with Kila that me wearing my new and quickly produced Terrian elder robes might be too much of a change at that moment. I wasn't a voting member of the Council myself, but my attendance as Earth Force Commander was still required.

I could see that Kila was hurt, even on the edge of tears, by the strong rejection as she floated respectfully in the middle of the room before the Council in her modified human suit and respirator. Kila and I just looked silently at each other though, now sharing a mental strength together, even at a distance.

"We live on Terra now!" President Chen now forcefully responded however, rising to Kila's defense. "We have to learn to live and integrate _with_ the Terrians! One of them is bravely giving up virtually everything she's known, even the surety of having air around her to safely breathe, to join us . . . to become a bridge between us and her people. We have to see each other, not as just humans or Terrians, but as beings . . . beings who have the same concerns, feelings, hopes, and desires. That is what Commander Meyers and Kila are bravely trying to show us together. That is why Kila is before us now, requesting to join this council . . . not so she can pass on dictates from the Terrians, but so she can provide their perspective to us, and advocate on _our_ behalf to her people. One of our kind, Commander Meyers, is also being accepted into the Terrian Eldership. We can do no less than honor such consideration by inviting a Terrian onto our council."

The motion to seat Kila on the Council passed by just two votes above the two thirds required for such a special nomination that didn't go to a public election. Chen had confided beforehand to Kila and I that going the public election route would be just too difficult, and asking for trouble. After that contentious vote though, Kila and I were assigned bodyguards, one unarmed Earth Force soldier and one unarmed Terrian elder, as I had suggested. I agreed with the Doron and the Terrians; I did not want weapons getting in the way and contributing to tensions, and we knew that any injury to our guards would draw public empathy with their lack of armament. I also wanted the rank-in-file of each force to start working together on joint assignments. Protecting the two of us seemed like a perfect first opportunity. I admired the number of both human and Terrian volunteers who stepped forward for this duty that very afternoon. Finally, we all had a cause to believe in, and fight for—Kila and I, and the shared future we now represented.

— — — — —

"Well, no chance for a bachelor party this time," I sighed as I settled into bed with my fiancée that night. "Or a bachelorette party either."

Kila put an arm around me under the covers and smiled. "You didn't really enjoy your last one anyway," she knowingly replied as she tapped more of my memories. "And I would not know what to do with a female equivalent of one of those. Come close, keep me warm . . . and rub my neck again."

I just drew her against me as my one hand now proceeded to massage her neck and cranial tail, while the other began to work her back that was delightfully bare, thanks to the nightdress she was wearing.

"Ohhh yeahh . . ." she sighed deeply as I continued to cradle and massage her against me quietly for a moment. "Stop, please," she then requested, raising her head and now looking at me.

"What is it?" I asked, looking into her eyes now.

"You used to love Kaila like this," she quietly noted, laying a three-fingered hand to my face. I just silently nodded. "I'm honoured, John," she continued.

"It's what I like to do for the partner I love," I sniffed.

"Here's what I'd like to do for mine," she softly said, shifting her mask over her nostrils as she began engaging me in a kiss while removing the nightdress from her shoulders and gently surging her energy to me in very specific ways.

I found myself quietly convulsing in tears of not just pleasure, but an indescribable joy as my hands now helped move the fabric of what she was wearing off her back and sides.

_You are female, even woman to me . . ._ I conveyed in thought to her.

"I know," she whispered between kisses as her hands unfastened the buttons of my nightshirt as well. Her energy now began to pass directly from her heart to mine.

Love had never seemed so pure, or so powerful.

— — — — —

The next day, a sudden joint public assembly between humans and Terrians was called in the hangar bay of the Elder Complex. The reason for it was not disclosed in advance, just that it was important to both our peoples.

"I wanted this outside," I sighed.

"I know, John," Kila empathized beside me. "But it was easier for masses of Terrians to come here, and to have a single place where humans could easily stand, and someplace that's out of the rain."

"We're not even honeymooning in your home the way I had wanted to," I added.

"Your people need us among them, so they will know you haven't just abandoned them for a Terrian life," she reminded me. "As we've both been hearing, some of them are still scared, John. They feel they're at the mercy of Terrians, that the elders could simply cut off their oxygen generators and kill them all. By having us, and especially me, live with them and my being vulnerable having to breathe Terrian air in their midst, it gives them a sense that we're sharing the risks with them."

"But the way some of them have stared at you beside me, even this morning," I noted.

"I expected it," she assured, "especially after tapping into your knowledge of Earth history. Your kind has always had a hard time trusting outsiders. Mine has somewhat, too. The way some of my people look at me in my human suit . . . it's like I betrayed them somehow. You're my only home now, John."

"And always will be," I pledged as I now wore my tan colored Terrian elder's robes anyway for this occasion. Sweeping smoothly from my shoulders to my feet, they were set with large, ruby-like stones arrayed in a flowing wave pattern across the fabric. My Earth Force insignia and name were in their customary places however on my right chest. I dispensed with the elder hat that was made to go with it though, as I didn't have a cranial tail of my own to fill it as Terrians did. Kila meanwhile, chose not only to wear human clothes, but an Earth wedding dress.

"You sure you're okay with this?" my bride asked me one more time, even though we were holding hands.

"Kila," I replied, "my late wife, Kaila, asked, even demanded that I save your people. It was the last thing she said to me before she died. I have been asking why she had to die for over a month now. I love you enough to allow you to come up with your own answers as to why Jorn died. But looking at you in the dress now that Kaila married me in some fifteen years ago . . . to me, she died to save us, to save us all. She died, because she somehow must have known that you needed to take her place beside me to save both our peoples from here forward. So," I sniffed, "as long as it's alright with you, I want her to participate in this ceremony, through this dress. I-I just wish I could find her body, and bring her home to rest, here."

"I know, John. I know," Kila said with deep understanding and empathy, now embracing me tightly in a side corridor off the main hangar, and gently flowing healing energy into me again while she cried herself. "But know I am honoured to wear this dress for her."

I could not have been more grateful to Kila, or love her more now.

"Sir, M'am . . . it's time," a human Earth Force aide of mine at the doorway to the main hangar now said.

"Come on, be strong," Kila smiled with a tear still in her eye as she gave me a final gentle pulse of energy, before Terrian horns now sounded and we emerged together from a portal into the hangar.

Once she had tapped my memories of my wedding with Kaila, my new bride, my soon-to-be second wife, had wanted a full Earth wedding with all the traditions, with Kila and I each processing separately down one large carpeted aisle through the hangar to both Elder Doron and President Chen. But with the tensions exposed at least within the human community by the reaction to news of our engagement, and in the close vote to seat Kila on the Earth Council yesterday—even with our bodyguards present, I wasn't going to let Kila be apart from me for a second now.

As we processed down the carpeted aisle across the hangar together, with honour guards of alternating Terrian and human personnel lining the aisle on each side of us, and our bodyguards preceding us, Kila was quietly overjoyed at the Earth violin quartet I had managed to surprise her with. I had requested it quietly to Chen as the Council meeting adjourned yesterday afternoon, and then put it clean out of my mind before Kila touched me again. It took real mental discipline to focus on all manner of other thoughts that evening and this morning, but I did it!

"I am gonna have to watch you, sir," my bride smiled as she floated beside me along the aisle.

_Now that I know how I can surprise you,_ I thought silently to her with a smile as I placed my other hand on hers while she held my arm, _we are gonna have fun!_

"I could kiss you right now," she sighed, looking at me with her large, wonderful purple eyes.

_Folks gotta say a few words first,_ I thought back.

Surrounded by a crowd of what must have been more than a thousand humans and Terrians, Kila and I stepped up onto an elevated platform in the middle of the vast hangar before Elder Doron and President Chen. I had one visible first act I wanted to perform publicly before anything else began though.

"Until this moment," I said to a microphone before the assembled throng, "I cannot speak Terrian. But I wanted to make my learning of that language public, both as a gift for my bride, and as a demonstration of my belief in a future of shared understanding for both our peoples. So, with that, Giddy, please perform the download."

"Organic data download commencing," the small, red, crab-like robot's voice echoed across the hangar, as twin blue beams of light emanated from its elevated optics into my eyes. Whole dictionaries of new sounds and words, along with rules on their syntax and usage now flooded into my mind. When the light beams stopped, I had a whole new language I could use . . . one that now felt to me practically like English.

"My congratulations also, sir," the robot said as it finished.

"Thank you, Giddy," I replied. But I wanted my first spoken words in Terrian to have special significance and meaning.

"_I love you, Kila,"_ I now said to her in fluent Terrian as easily as if it was English. She practically cried right there. "For those of you who don't yet speak Terrian, as you can see, learning it can be very easy," I explained on the microphone while I continued looking at her, "I just told my bride that I love her."

Applause broke out among many of the humans. Initially, Terrians looked around, puzzled at this strange custom, but soon began joining in, before everyone went silent and the proceedings continued.

"Bonding between mates is a sacred act, among both our peoples," Doron now said in English first, and then in Terrian. "It is the joining of two into one."

"_We gather now to celebrate and honour not only the joining of two beings today, one from each of our communities,_" President Chen now picked up in fluent Terrian, "_but through them, and even through their love, the opening of a doorway to lasting understanding, peace, and harmony between both our peoples._" Now, the Terrians were first to applaud, before he then repeated his statement in English. When he finished, the humans broke out into applause as well.

Talk about front-loading a marriage with expectation though. Fortunately Kila just smiled, glancing at me as we held hands.

"So, do you, Kila, take Jonathan to be your husband?" President Chen now asked in English, followed by Terrian this time. "Will you love him, comfort him and remain with him always, in sickness and in health, through hardship and ease, so long as you both shall live?"

"I do. Tó jih," Kila replied in both English and Terrian.

"_And_ _do you, Jonathan, take Kila as your bonded mate?_" Doron now said to me in Terrian, before repeating it in English. "_To love, sacrifice for, and honor, without reservation? To keep your essence open, your thoughts known, and your energy shared with her until life takes back from either of you that which you have received?_"

"Tó jih. I do," I replied.

"Bring forward the bracelets," Doron now requested in both languages.

Even though she had wanted to, as Kila could not keep a ring on her tapered fingers or thumb, we had decided to wear gold bracelets on our left wrists instead as symbols of our bond. Kila used this decision however, to invite me to keep Kaila's ring on my left hand as well, as a memorial to my late wife.

"That ring, on your finger," she had said when we made this decision the previous afternoon, even touching it, "is Kaila's memorial, just as your ring remains with her body as a permanent testament of the love you shared. She isn't in space though, John, but in your heart and memories, always. This ring is a far better way, and place, to accept and remember her, than a gravestone could ever be."

I had never been so moved and grateful in my life as I held Kila.

"What about you though?" I sniffed. "Jorn went down with his warship as it burned. He was never recovered either."

"My energy is still as he had changed it with me," she tearfully replied. "With you now, that will not change. Terrians don't wear anything resembling wedding rings to show their bonded commitment to a mate. Our changed energy or 'aura', readily perceivable by our people, fulfills that role. It's why I never wanted to receive energy from another healer to erase or change that. My unchanged energy is the memorial I want to keep for him . . . that, and my memories of him."

I still felt humbled and moved by that decision of ours as we now stood on the wedding platform. Although initially reluctant to participate in such a big event, Mike and Shanon graciously agreed to bear each of our bracelets up onto the platform.

"John, with this bracelet," Kila said in English first as she took and bound the gold bracelet around my left wrist, followed with a repetition in Terrian, "I take you as my wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live."

"_Kila, with this bracelet,_" I responded likewise first in Terrian and then in English, "_I take you as my bonded mate. My essence, my energy, my thoughts and my life are yours. I commit to sharing harmony with you now and always, no matter what life brings to us._"

"As our first act together," Kila and I each said in the other's native language before we kissed, "we wish to honor and remember all who were lost in the recent battle, including our past mates . . . that through remembering them, such discord and suffering may never happen among our peoples again."

"For our peoples, and the harmony we all need to share," we said as a torch was handed to us and together we lit a small memorial cauldron on the platform. There was respectful silence across the vast hangar as we did this.

"As we end this ceremony, and begin celebrating our coming together, we have one request of each of you," we then resumed, ending the moment of silence, and speaking to the crowd in one another's languages. "We would ask that either now, or during the celebration, you each find one of the other species, shake their hand, look them in the eye, and say, 'Never again' or 'Moti naru'. That would mean more to us than any other wedding gift or gesture you could give."

"You may seal your bond," Doron then invited, as Chen added in Terrian, _"You may kiss the bride."_

"Wife," I whispered as I looked with awe into Kila's eyes while I held her in my arms now.

"Mate," my beautiful bride replied as we now moved to kiss each other, as she hit the button on my shoulder collar to drop my respirator out of the way without missing a beat.

Instead of the cheering I had been hoping for though, there was silence again, almost a sense of shock in the hangar, as everyone witnessed our marital kiss.

_It may take a while for folks to get used to this . . . to us,_ I thought with reservation to Kila, looking around as we ended our kiss.

"All the more reason for me to keep kissing and showing my love for you. Now breathe," my wife replied as she lovingly reactivated my respirator for me.

"We proclaim Jonathan and Kila Meyers to be bonded mates, husband and wife!" Doron and Chen then proclaimed in each other's languages as well. "May they be just the first among us to discover what is possible together. Let there be harmony!"

Terrian horns and human violins and other instruments now sounded, as the crowd slowly started cheering around Kila and I.

"Now, the real work begins," Kila sighed to me.

"I know," I simply smiled, looking at her as we each slipped an arm around one another. "But we're gonna have fun first anyway."

Kila couldn't resist reaching a hand up my back and touching my neck to give me a brief jolt again in confirmation. "You need to have holes in the sides of your clothing, like my kind has," she suggested. "Reaching up to love you like this is just awkward."

Reaching for the base of her cranial tail with my left hand to pleasure her in kind as we kissed once more, I no longer wanted to ask her to stop or control herself.


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up and stretched in a huge bed under nicely thick covers, finding my movement unrestricted in all directions . . . except one.

"Mermaid, huh?" I heard lovingly whispered into my ear as I savored the touch of her form against me.

"Yeah," I smiled, turning my head towards Kila. "You're my mermaid . . . and part electric eel." We both laughed before she kissed me.

"No regrets?" she checked, relaxing against me.

"None," I assured. "You?"

"Not with all this," she sighed as she snuggled against me some more. "I have never enjoyed such warmth and sensations."

For our brief honeymoon, and despite Kila's expressed intention that we take it right in our quarters among humans, due to both privacy and security concerns we were given a suite of rooms elsewhere in the Elder Complex for a few days until attention, excitement, and even some controversy over the two of us died down. The rooms we were given had large-windowed views of the outside, even though it was grey and constantly snowing to one degree or another out there. Kila had surprised me however by arranging to have the room furnished with a huge semi-oval bed, with a deep, plush mattress and quilt, and pillows stacked against the headboard. While it had Terrian styling, it was otherwise very un-Terrian and must have seemed strange to the local craftsbeings who had been given just a day to build it. But it was something Kila knew I'd love.

"Sweetheart," I sighed, seeing it for the first time after our wedding and smiling as I carried her effortlessly into the room fulfilling an ages old Earth marital tradition, "we can't possibly fit this into the bedroom of our current quarters."

"I know," she smiled as well as she raised her mask to give me another kiss.

As wonderful as that was however, she just bowled me over with her other surprise.

"You didn't . . ." I said in utter stunned amazement after she had floated out of my arms and ushered me into an adjoining room off the bedroom. In space, water had been a precious resource. Even with every drop recycled over and over again, immersing ourselves in it was a rare luxury, one that had been rationed on the Ark. So when Kila had tapped my memories of the few times I had been allowed to experience a real bath, and also my memories of having read about things like hot springs and hot tubs in Earth historical records, and the fantasies that those had fueled within me . . . she just had to have that replicated.

"Come on," she invited, easily shedding her wedding dress and laying it with some care on a nearby chair, remembering who it had belonged to before her. She then just took a dive into our very own hot tub. When she surfaced in the steaming, bubbling waters, _mermaid_ was the first thing I thought of, and it just became stuck inside my head after that whenever I looked at her undressed. About the only problem she had with the tub though was that her body was already so neutrally buoyant in the air that she basically floated on top of the water.

I was already feeling guilty enough at all she had arranged, which included an Earth oxygen atmosphere throughout our suite, save for another Terrian 'safe room' for her as she knew I'd insist upon. But then, as I finally shed my clothes and got in, too, she swam off to one side of the hot tub and tossed aside her respirator and pack.

"Kila," I said in alarm.

She just held up a three-fingered hand before putting a very attractive turquoise blue band around the top of her head and pulling a couple of small plastic breathing tubes out of it that she then inserted into her nostrils at her forehead. Kila then tucked a much smaller, curved air supply pack under the tail-like appendage on the back of her head, fastening it around her neck with another matching turquoise collar.

"Hands and mouth free," she smiled as she finished putting it all on, "and everything's out of the way. I just gotta remember to breath through my nostrils this time, instead of my mouth."

"Kila," I sighed, shaking my head with guilt as she swam back across the hot tub to me. "Although I gotta admit you do look so sexy with that headband and collar around your neck."

"I knew it!" she smiled as she drew me into an embrace and kiss. "I knew I was tapping into the right fantasies of yours!"

"I just give up," I sighed, laughing as I accepted her into my arms, beginning to just enjoy all she was spoiling me with. "But what do I do for you?"

"Are you kidding?" she replied enthusiastically. "Hot tubs, huge beds with soft quilts and pillows, things like physical massage instead of just energy exchange . . . you're opening up whole new worlds of sensations and experiences here for me, just by opening your mind and allowing me to share all this with you. My bonding night with Jorn was good, don't get me wrong . . . but this, John, all these new physical experiences and sensations? They're incredible."

"Just be really careful with your energy in here," I cautioned. "Water and electricity don't mix too well. That could kill me, and perhaps you, too."

"You feel this?" she gently queried as she wrapped her arms and hands around me and nicely settled the rest of herself against me, forcing most of her body into the warm waters.

"Ohh wow," I sighed deeply, feeling staggering sensations throughout me now.

"It's not simple electricity, silly," she smiled. "But I'm getting better at this, aren't I?"

"Uh huh . . ." was all I could say in reply. "B-But what can I do, for you?"

"Welcome me . . . as your wife," she whispered as we then kissed.

— — — — —

Now, the following morning, we were thoroughly bonded as husband and wife, and we had no secrets from each other . . . not that I really could with Kila anyway.

"Those tubes are irritating your nostrils," I sighed to her as I noticed a little mucus flowing out of each of them for the first time.

"I'm okay," she assured. "The mask made my mouth sweat. I don't mind what you'd call a 'runny nose' nearly as much."

"Kila, I want us to sleep, even relax, in a Terrian atmosphere," I requested. "I'm tired of seeing you stretch yourself for me again and again. It's my turn to wear an air piece for us for a while."

"I can't kiss you with that thing on your face," she replied. "And besides, I'll be living with you in a human community. I might as well get used to this."

"You're handicapping yourself for me," I noted with some concern.

"Yeah, I am," she confirmed. "It's a gift, John. One I give from the deepest part of my essence . . . to you, to us, to our peoples and our world, even back to Jorn. I am not gonna see us, or what we're fighting for, fail. War will not return here, ever. That's what Jorn died to stop—not to push all of you off our world, but to end the fighting and violence. If I get runny noses or sweaty mouths, that's such a small price, compared to what he paid."

"You're right, Kila," I said gently holding her in our bed and kissing her forehead next to her headband. "I'm sorry."

"Stop resisting what I try to give you," she said, looking at me on our pillows now. "Just love me . . . without guilt or complications or reservations or hesitations. You humans are really messed up that way, you know that?"

"Really?" I queried.

"Really," she confirmed. "Working as a healer among you is gonna be a lot tougher than I thought."

"You're gonna get inside everyone's minds?" I asked.

"Not like I do with you," she sighed. "And no, I'm not some sort of 'mind spy', like that thought that just passed through your head, who's come among you to plant thoughts on behalf of my people and control you."

"Sorry again," I apologized. "My kind just aren't used to having anyone else inside our heads."

"John," she quietly said, "I've given up a life now to marry and be with you. Just make it worth my while, okay?"

"Kila," I said holding her closer against me and kissing the top of her head, "of course I will. My mind is just a little undisciplined at times. No one else has ever seen inside me like you are now. I'm just gonna have to focus on you harder."

"No," she replied as she looked at me again. "Not harder. Just do it . . . and for heaven's sake, enjoy it."

I just proceeded to kiss her passionately.

— — — — —

All too soon, our few days of quiet honeymoon were over. Kila was right, Chen and our human community needed us. As always now, my new wife was not one to mess around.

She proceeded to meet with human after human, often just stopping herself and I as we passed through the corridors of the Earth column we lived in, and talking with most anyone we encountered.

"Could you use a touch of kindness?" she would often invite. Few humans seemed able to resist such an offer. That was usually all it would take, as Kila would hold their willing hands, close her eyes and then quickly find and speak aloud with gentleness what was troubling the inner recesses of their minds. As I had discovered myself, most anyone she touched found it incredibly freeing and heartwarming for another to know and name their innermost troubles. Once touched, known, and cared about by her, virtually no one she came into contact with could harbor biases towards Kila or Terrians after that. She was the single best ambassador for her kind and bridge between our peoples that any of us could ask for. That I was lucky enough to be married to her just floored me at times.

Kila soon uncovered a remarkable array of personal problems among our human population with her disarming approach, including a number of depressions, and even several people who were contemplating suicide like I once had. As was the Terrian way, our home became her informal office and clinic, although she began making daily visits to the Medical Bay as well to check on and treat people there, too.

"The mind can be responsible for many ailments in the body," she told me as we left the Medical Bay together one day. "It's all one. Applying healing energy just right, whether to the body or mind, and changing basic feelings and attitudes, can produce beneficial results, sometimes as much as your drugs and surgical treatments can. But John," she requested.

"What?" I asked.

"Could you just keep those medical robots out of my way?" she sighed. "How your kind could have entrusted your most essential healing and wellbeing to those machines, I'll never know."

"I'll see what I can do," I gently smiled.

When I'd come home from my Earth Force and Eldership work in the evenings, I never knew whether Kila would be seeing a patient in our home, but she had told me that even seeing what a good home was like was part of her patients' healing. Whenever I did come home and saw her with a patient though, I knew they'd be staying for dinner. So I would just trade whatever uniform I was wearing for a chef's apron and start cooking.

My wife even put up a Terrian healer's sign outside in the corridor next to the front door to our quarters. It was just a marble tablet depicting a simple figure from the waist up that could be perceived as either Terrian or human, in an open posture with its arms spread in welcome. Its energy centres were highlighted with circles, and a gentle smile was on its face. I found even myself warmed by the image and the sense of acceptance it conveyed as I passed it every day, and a lot of other people seemed to be as well.

Kila was always respectful of human personal boundaries and my kind's desire for privacy. But that didn't stop her if she got an uncomfortable impression of someone.

"Hello," she greeted a man we passed in a corridor in our Earth column another day. This man didn't respond to her however and brushed right past us. "Wait," she said, turning around and calling after him, rushing off down the corridor to catch up with him as I wondered what she was doing. Without asking his permission, she just reached her hand to clasp his.

As I caught up with her, Kila's eyes opened wide at the man. "You don't want to be doing this," she warned him.

"What's going on?" I asked her.

"Do you want to tell him, or shall I?" she posed to the man.

Fortunately, Kila and I were still accompanied by bodyguards, and we all surrounded him as the rest of us got an uncomfortable feeling about him as well now. The man just looked down, like he had been caught.

"He's part of an underground 'Earther' cell," she said, still looking at him. "They hate Terrians and have been plotting to kill either elders here, or civilians if they could get to one of our cities."

"Why?" I asked, realizing we'd uncovered a real problem.

"We're not free here!" the man erupted.

"We're as free as we choose to be," I replied. "We will soon have a community of our own on the outside, as well as an increasing number of possibilities and choices to even live in Terrian communities. But you will ruin all that if you do what she's sensed within you. What do you want to do, huh? Bring strife and violence back between our peoples? Have us humans driven off this planet back into space? Where would we go? What would we travel in? All we have left are fighters and bombers, with many of them now configured as shuttles, and they have limited ranges. Terra is it for us now . . . and you're under arrest," I reluctantly ordered. Our guards now took hold of him, while our human guard commlinked for backup as he handcuffed him.

"How many more of you are there?" I asked.

The man remained silent.

"Bring him to the Council, now," I ordered. "Kila, come, too."

"What is it, John?" she asked as we followed our guards now escorting the man.

"We have to put a stop to this quickly," I said. "And I need Council authorization and witness for what I'm about to ask you to do."

— — — — —

Soon, we were in the interim Earth Council chamber within the Elder Complex. President Chen and most all of the forty-five councilors had shown up at my emergency request via commlink.

"Mister President," I said as I entered the chamber with my wife, our guards and the suspect, "Kila has uncovered through brief touch a member of a clandestine Earther anti-Terrian cell. As Earth Force Commander, I request the Council's approval to have her probe his mind further to identify other cell members, and have Earth Force apprehend them before they can do anything. I view this as vital to continued peace and cooperation with the Terrians."

"Council," President Chen asked, "any questions? . . . Hearing none, all in favor?"

"Aye," most councilors responded.

"Opposed?" he then asked. About seven councilors voiced their opposition. "Abstentions?" he followed up.

"Abstain, due to conflict of interest," Kila now replied as a councilor herself.

"Motion approved," Chen then ruled. "Your name, sir?" he then asked.

"I refuse," the man responded.

"Peace and harmony are the most important things now to this community," President Chen warned. "We will allow nothing and no one to threaten that. Is there anything you wish to tell us before I allow this Terrian healer to proceed?"

"She will lie to you!" he spat back.

"Why?" the president challenged.

"Don't you see?" he said emphatically. "They want to control us! Eliminate us!"

"If they had wanted to eliminate us," Chen responded, "they could have just left us to die in space, or easily shut off our oxygen weeks ago. We're often all in our columns, especially when we sleep at night. They've had lots of chances by now. Yet both our people and the Terrians together carefully monitor and guard our oxygen generators, day and night. And they're leading the way to build an entire community for us out on the surface. They would not make such an effort if they simply intended to kill us. Your flawed thinking is the real danger here."

"You're afraid," my wife said to the man now with empathy, moving towards him. "But there's nothing to fear. I will only read your thoughts, and together, we will find peace, okay?"

"NO!" the man yelled, now struggling against the guards who were restraining him, as Kila now reached to clasp his hand that one guard was holding as steady as he could for her.

"Don't think of the other cell members," my wife now coached, skillfully employing reverse psychology to focus his thoughts on just that, as she held his hand, closing her eyes in concentration. "You cannot think of the other seven, no eight, friends who are in this with you."

Kila was soon reciting the names of the other cell members through her mental link, as I was on my commlink to our Earth Force security teams, ordering these individuals to be found and arrested immediately.

"I'm trying to feed him calming energy," she then said as the man continued to struggle afterwards, weeping as I had once done in resisting Kila's healing energies, "but he is most resistant, and fearful."

Soon, the other eight cell members had been arrested and brought under armed Earth Force guard to the Council chamber, while Kila finally broke off her mind link with the man. "That was exhausting," she sighed leaning against me for a moment. "So much darkness, fear and anger. Give me your hand for a minute . . . I need some loving thoughts."

"Here is all you could want," I assured her as I put my arm around her while we linked hands, giving the side of her head a kiss for good measure.

Elder Doron had also been notified of the situation, and a delegation of himself and several other elders were invited to jointly decide with the Council as to what should be done.

"We have not had the need to detain prisoners for any length of time for ages now," Doron noted before the Council. "It is against harmony, and for the good of both our peoples we cannot be seen as holding any of your people against their will. This must be a human affair, but my people will be willing to provide healing and any other helpful assistance you may desire. Know that I must protect the wellbeing of my people though, if that becomes necessary."

"We will not allow that to become necessary, Elder," President Chen assured. "Citizens," he then said, addressing the nine accused cell members, "you stand accused of participating in a covert cell, with the intention of harming or killing Terrians. We cannot tolerate such activities here, nor can we tolerate such unhealthy or unharmonious beliefs within our community, or on this world. I can give you the choice of a full trial each, or you can voluntarily plead guilty to membership and participation in this cell, or you can undergo a mind reading with healer and councilor Kila Meyers and she could clear you of any association with this cell. As an already sworn member of this council and recognized Terrian healer, Kila's testimony will be accepted as evidence, and this Council will permit her to read each of your minds. You can hide nothing from her. She will know the truth within each of you."

"If you choose a trial and are found guilty, or you plead guilty," Chen continued, "you will be given a further choice . . . rehabilitation with healer Meyers until she is satisfied, an unarmed shuttle bomber to voyage out into space with and likely die there, or execution by firing squad here. We do not have the resources to keep prisoners for any length of time, either here in our interim accommodations, or in our future community. With the possible exception of rehabilitation, which should be an easy and preferable choice, the other options may be harsh, but this Council is sending a hard message that our peace with the Terrians will not be put at risk or lost because of any hate towards them. Too many people and generations have sacrificed to get us where we are now. You may have anyone you wish called to this chamber to consult with you. But you have one hour, in this room, to make your choice."

— — — — —

Within an hour, all nine accused had made their choices. All decided to admit they were collaborators and plead guilty. That Kila had both discovered one of them with just a touch, and revealed all the others by tapping into that one man's mind, even against his will; that was all the proof they needed to convince them that she would reveal the truth of their involvement anyway. Five opted for supervised rehabilitation with Kila, three opted for the shuttle, and one, the leader whom Kila had uncovered, chose to challenge our determination by demanding death by firing squad.

"You wouldn't dare," he said. "You love peace and harmony too much, you Terrian-loving traitors."

"Council, motion to authorize an execution by firing squad, as this man has chosen," the President called for, "and approve the sentences the other defendants have chosen as well?"

"So moved," one voice said. "Second," another echoed.

"Discussion?" the president then called.

"Mister President," Kila called out as a councilor, "I intend to abstain from this vote also, as I feel this decision to execute and otherwise sentence humans in this matter should be made strictly by other humans, their peers."

"Understood, Councilor Kila," the president accepted. "Any others?" The room now remained silent as the man glared at the rest of us. "Very well," Chen continued. "All in favor, with a show of hands as well please?"

"Aye," a significant number of councilors said, raising their hands.

"Opposed?" Chen continued.

"Nay," a dozen councilors replied, now raising their hands.

"Abstain?" the president requested.

"Abstain," my wife and two human councilors replied, finally raising their hands in turn.

"Being supported by a clear majority of this forty-five member body," the president reluctantly concluded, "the motion is approved. Commander, assemble a firing squad."

"Wait!" the man now interjected. "You can't be serious . . . executing me based solely on unproven assertions that aren't even from one of us?"

"We granted you the sentence you requested, based on your plea," Chen reminded him. "Do you want a trial?"

"But I haven't done anything!" he responded.

"You have organized and conspired with others towards plotting to harm or kill Terrians," Chen replied. "That takes it beyond just thought and into action. That the rest of your group pled guilty, along with you, and none of them has requested to be cleared of guilt or association by submitting to a mind reading with Councilor Kila—"

"But that Terrian lies!" the man asserted.

"Why would I?" Kila challenged next to me. "Why? I'm here, living with all of you now. My home is here. I work hard to make anyone I come in contact with feel better, on their own terms. I had a much easier life before I ever came here! So how would lying about you serve me?"

The man was stumped for an answer.

"The Terrians welcomed us," Chen noted. "They could have simply let us die in space, and not provided us with any place to live or even breathe here. But they did. The irrationality, the insanity of hate is something we cannot afford to tolerate here as guests and neighbors now of the Terrians on their world."

"It is your people's world now as well, Mister President," Doron interjected. "But my people still retain a right to live peacefully in it."

"Thank you, Elder Doron," Chen gratefully acknowledged to him before addressing the man again. "Sir, I will put it to you simply . . . we have and cherish many freedoms, but we cannot allow a freedom to hate here, anymore than we can allow a freedom to kill. If you cannot live peacefully and amicably with the Terrians, you cannot live with us. You can give up your hatred with help, leave the planet, or be executed. That is the final choice I give you."

"Things!" the man yelled, looking at Kila and Doron.

"Mister President," Kila said, "I would be willing to try to heal him."

"Kila has made a most generous offer," Chen now said to the man. "Would you accept?"

"I will not be touched again by that thing!" he spat back. "Nor will I make the choice you limit me to. I am a free human!"

"And I am a person, not a thing," Kila said back more quietly, perceptibly hurt as I put a supportive arm around her again.

"Mister President, with your permission, I'll perform the execution myself," I volunteered, ready to put an end to this. "I do not wish any of my personnel to be tainted with having to perform this act under orders, but as he is not consenting to be healed, it must be done, for the good of all of us."

"Proceed, Commander," Chen reluctantly agreed.

"A sidearm, please," I requested.

"John," Kila said to me with concern.

"Just heal me afterward," I quietly asked her.

"I will," she assured, as one of our remaining laser pistols was soon brought to me.

I looked down as it was placed in my hand. There was nowhere in the room to really tie the man to so the guards could step away. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for volunteers to hold him," I reluctantly said. "I'll have to fire close myself, so that no one else gets hurt."

"I'll do it, sir," one Earth Force soldier volunteered. "I'll do it, too," another already holding the man along with a Terrian guard echoed. With just a look from his elders, the Terrian guard now floated off to one side as two human guards replaced him, while another Earth Force soldier joined the guard on the man's other side as well.

"See?" the man said, beginning to struggle more. "The Terrians don't have to lift a finger. They control all of you. They're having you kill me for them!"

"We are choosing to execute you," Chen replied with almost sad determination, "all by ourselves. The Terrians have nothing to do with this. One of them even offered to save you, but you have refused. We will not be drawn into your insanity with you. That would lead to suffering and death for all of us. If you will not be healed from your delusions, this ends here. For the good of all of us, it has to," he concluded as I now stepped in front of the man.

To ensure that I didn't miss and hurt the guards, I chose to stand just two metres in front of him as he coldly looked at me in the eyes, defiant to the last.

"One last time, would you state your name, please?" I asked.

"Roland . . . Meyers," he said slowly, fully aware of who I was to him. I found myself chilled, now realizing I was about to execute a relative, even though I didn't know him personally.

"I'm sorry we didn't meet at any family gatherings, Roland," I said calmly.

"We did," he coldly replied, never taking his eyes off of me. "You would kill a relative?" he then challenged.

"The heart, or the head?" I asked him in answer to his question.

"Roland," my wife interceded one more time, "let me save you . . . please. This doesn't have to happen."

"You choose how to betray our people, Terrian-lover," he answered to me, ignoring her again, " . . . just as you have chosen them over us."

"I do love a Terrian," I replied, " . . . and our people. That's why I do this," I said, then simply raising the gun and firing at his head to give him the quickest death.

The ray from the gun hit his forehead with sparks and he slumped forward in the arms of the guards. It was over just like that. I returned the gun to the custody of one of our soldiers as I looked down, but not before I noticed that a number of cameras had recorded the event. That was as it should be though.

"John," my wife gently invited, floating to my side, "let's go home. Others can handle this for now." I just quietly put my arm around her as I felt her fingers intertwine with the fingers of the hand I had placed on her waist. She was already sending me a gentle stream of healing energy. I couldn't help but quietly cry as we left the chamber together, accompanied by our guards.

I avoided eye contact with other humans as we went home to our quarters. I had executed one of my own kind, even a relative, to protect what we had now with the Terrians. I knew word about it would quickly spread among our people, and I didn't know how they would take it. I was just glad Kila had the protection of our bodyguards. I didn't care about myself.

"Would you like a bath?" my wife offered when we got home and our front door slid closed behind us as our guards took up their posts outside. "I'll even squeeze in the tub and join you."

"No," I sighed, still looking down. "Let's just have dinner and call it an early night."

"Don't hide from me, John," she gently said, turning towards me and caressing the side of my face. "You know you can't anyway."

I just embraced her close, shutting my eyes tightly. Now I had a second hell to deal with, after mostly recovering from my grief over Kaila's death. I could not get that man's, my cousin's, stare at me as I shot him out of my mind.

"John," Kila said, seeing what I was, "open your eyes and look at me." I did as she asked, seeing her purple eyes and their large black pupils practically filling my vision. "Now," she continued, "focus on my stare of total love and gratitude for you. I love you, John . . . and I am so grateful for what you did in protecting me, and all of us, from the hate of that man. Every time his stare enters your consciousness, I want you to focus on my stare instead, even ask me to give it to you again, day or night . . . and I will, anytime. My stare is much more powerful than his. Let me win, okay?"

"Kila . . ." I was even able to smile a little in gratitude. "No one can heal me like you do."

"Ohh I'm just getting warmed up," she assured with a kiss. "But let's have some quick and easy forgon salad first, and then watch out mister, because your healer is just gonna wow you."

We got around to eating some salad . . . eventually that night. Kila and her ways and energy just made me forget about eating, and everything else most of the time, except her. But the nightmares I was afraid would plague me? They just didn't happen. Instead, I had a vivid dream of lounging in a hot tub in an ancient Roman country villa, with Kila in a stola and me wearing a grand toga, in senatorial purple no less . . . at least at first anyway. But boy, did she look good in her stola.

"Greetings, Senator," Kila said from across a trellised terrace with rolling fields of vineyards beyond on a sunny afternoon. She was wearing her loose robes just right so that they nicely bared her midriff, making her utterly captivating, even enticing. That she wasn't wearing a mask and that we were breathing the same air didn't seem odd to me at all. I even found myself passing up several eager human temple virgins vying for my attention to get to her. Kila just floated next to an elegant chaise lounge at the edge of a nicely bubbling hot tub that was sunk in among the terrace's tiles.

"Grapes?" she offered as I came up to her, slowly eating one herself.

It was all over. I didn't even try to resist after that . . . and unlike most of my dreams, I wasn't waking up just when it was getting really good either. This one just kept going and going, almost like it was an alternate life. The last thing I remembered was lounging in the hot tub, utterly relaxed. Kila was in the tub with me, gently cradling my head against her and feeding me another grape.

— — — — —

"I can influence your dreams when you're in REM sleep," my wife confessed the next morning when I shared my dream with her. "I've been learning about different stages of human sleep, and discovered one night as I woke up and briefly tapped into your thoughts, that by focusing my energy and concentration narrowly on certain thoughts or memories, I can basically construct a dream for you, and even share it. So kind of 'programming' myself to wake up to the dream energies of your mind as you began dreaming last night here, I simply honed in on your memories of favourite things like hot tubs, ancient Rome, nice women in stolae, me of course . . . and voila! Your ideal custom dream. I just have to be awake to do it."

"Kila . . ." I sighed.

"Just keep me warm," she replied in response to regrets she was reading in my mind at her spoiling me again. "Maybe let me nap for a while longer here in bed with you . . . and yes, you should be enjoying this," she added preemptively. "Roland chose his own hell in this life, and we Terrians believe that every last being finds peace after death. So just choose peace for him, release him to it, and continue on in the peace and love that surrounds you in your own life, okay?"

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?" I smiled as I drew her closer in bed.

"Just for you," she warmly assured as she kissed me, before we both resettled ourselves for sleeping in a while longer. No one would begrudge me, either of us really, a day off today.

"You wanna go back to that villa?" she sighed as she closed her eyes, nestled comfortably against me.

"Sleep, okay?" I smiled, giving her a warm embrace and a kiss on her forehead.

"Sure thing . . . Senator," she replied.

_I love you,_ I thought intensely to her, gripping her even tighter for a moment. Kila just sighed warmly against me. I could feel her joy, even her smile radiating throughout her being and enveloping me as well. All that she was just lulled me right back into a deep, contented sleep.

— — — — —

While sad, even tragic, Roland's execution did do some good. All the other cell members cooperatively opted for healing with Kila, including the ones that had originally chosen to leave the planet on a shuttle. My wife found it exhausting work though dealing with so much human fear and hate. I used it as my chance however to catch up on spoiling her for a change in the evenings.

"John, where did you go?" I heard her say one evening as she bid goodnight to one of her cell member patients under guard again, after a particularly long and challenging session of reaching and reasoning with him. I just waited for her to enter our bedroom.

"Wow, it's nicely warm in here," she noted as she finally came in through the curtains to our room.

"Greetings, my Lady," I said, with only a bed sheet draped around one shoulder, and wearing my respirator collar and air piece, standing next to our bed, the room illuminated only by gently flickering candles that were burning somewhat less brightly than they normally would.

"You sly . . ." she just smiled as I moved to unzip and relieve her of not only her blue suit, but her head and neck bands and her compact air pack at the rear of her neck as well.

"Tonight, I am your Roman manservant," I whispered as I nuzzled the side of her head with my nose while my mouth remained behind my air piece. "Skilled in all the sensual and healing arts, for your pleasures. Enjoy this warm Herculaneum evening in your bedchamber," I invited, firmly grasping the nape of her neck right underneath her cranial tail as she sighed, breathing deeply amid her own air, as I dropped my air piece and began laying a trail of sensuous kisses down the side of her head and neck. Soon, she was just sinking onto our bed as I raised my air piece for a needed breath at last and my hands went to work on her rubbing all her cares away, giving her the deepest and most sensual massage I could until she was practically lulled to sleep.

"Breathe freely tonight," I whispered as I settled into bed, shedding that sheet of mine and drawing her warmly against me. "My gift to you . . . I love you, Kila."

"Love . . . you . . ." she mumbled pleasantly. We both had to work a little to get comfortable with my air piece and collar around my neck, but after a little turning and shifting in bed, she was settled close against me on her side, already well on her way to blissful sleep in my arms, while l lay on my side, careful to keep my air collar off the top of her head. "Sleep in oxygen . . . tomorrow night . . . less hassle," she added with another mumble.

"Enjoy this," I smiled, dropping my air piece one more time as I trailed a few more kisses around the base of her cranial tail, even breathing on the sensitive skin there. Her involuntary surge of grateful, pleasurable energy let me know I how well I was pampering her.

"Sleep . . ." she whispered with a deep smile.

"Alright," I whispered back, unable to resist dropping my air piece one more time and giving the top of her head one more kiss.

I had never seen her so happy and grateful as she was on those nights, or the following mornings.

"John," she softly sighed, her head resting on her pillow as we were just waking up one morning, "I couldn't be doing this work of healing these cell members without you. You are truly my healer, and I love you, so very much."

I just moved to hold her tightly, letting a universe of grateful and loving thoughts speak for me.

'Healer' has been our shared nickname for each other ever since.

— — — — —

At my suggestion, Kila soon called in and trained two other Terrian healers to help her with the rehabilitation though, and what they learned together in that effort contributed much to the body of knowledge among healers. Each cell member remained guarded and confined to their quarters when not being healed, until Kila approved their final release. Slowly they came around though, being willing to even share their experiences with others, both human and Terrian as Kila remained beside them, facilitating the exchanges. My wife and I even came to call some of them friends.

"Last one," she noted with a sigh as she applied her thumbprint on an electronic pad, signing a release authorization from supervised detention for the final cell member one night as she wrapped up some work lounging, beautiful as always now, wearing a nightdress in our bed.

"I'm proud of you," I gently said as I slipped into bed beside her. "How would you like to celebrate?"

"How about a weekend in our honeymoon suite again?" she suggested with a subtle smile. "No one else has been using it. Hot tub . . . grapes . . ."

"I'll pack," I said, quickly getting right back out of bed.

Before long, Kila and I were feeding each other the rare, hydroponically grown fruit as we lounged close together in the bubbling waters of that tub and watched it snow outside through a large, segmented round window.

We deserved such a celebration. We had helped both our peoples weather their first crisis together on Terra.


	8. Chapter 8

"Oh, here's some more people we haven't met yet," my wife said as we approached our quarters one evening.

"Kila," I quietly sighed. It had already been a long day for me, and I was quietly ready to just crash. Bed, couch . . . it didn't make a difference.

"Here's a quick pick-me-up," she winked as she gave me a brief jolt of reviving energy, "to last you until you can crash on our bed. It's my turn to pamper you tonight anyway."

"Sold," I could only sigh, smiling at her as she just gave me a kiss before introducing the two of us to this latest pair of humans.

Dressed as she was, always in human civilian garb now whenever we were outside our quarters, insisting that I dress in my Earth Force uniform or human casual clothes as well, instead of my elder robes, Kila continued on her mission of gradually winning people over.

"We're a human couple," she'd remind me as we'd walk hand in hand wherever we went now, her body oriented horizontally as she undulated her flat tail up and down to keep up beside me, while I'd stroll vertically on my legs. "I just happen to be Terrian, that's all."

Sure enough, that's what most people came to see her as. She was just Kila . . . wonderful, friendly, caring, helpful Kila. She would continue to invite strangers on the spot home to dinner, having me help her cook up an increasing range of both human and Terrian dishes, including some of the spicy favorites like 'Firehouse Chili' that I used to enjoy making with Kaila. I cried the first night we made that, for both the rush of the incredibly hot taste that we got just right and the memories it brought back.

"Thank you for helping me make it," I said to Kila with the same watery eyes that this particular chili had always given me.

"I don't know how you can eat that stuff," she smiled, having tasted it just once and immediately trying to put out the 'fire' by stuffing her mouth with cool, soothing forgon salad. Some humans liked it though, and rumors about how good dinners were at our home seemed to start spreading.

But whenever we had new guests over for dinner, invariably during dinner or evening conversation afterward, one topic would come up, over and over again, in just four little words: "How do you two . . . ?"

"Energy," Kila would smile, looking at me warmly as we'd sit together at either our dining table or on our couches afterward in the living area.

"Ohh yeah," I'd simply agree with a smile of my own as I'd extend an arm around her. "We can't have kids on our own, but with the energy she has learned how to give me just right—trust me, I'm not missing a thing."

That one frank admission on our part seemed to win us more friends than anything else.

Soon, Kila was arranging what we came to call Friendship Encounters between groups of Terrians and humans, even escorting human group field trips to Kila's Terrian city nearby that would include participating in outdoor festivals when they were happening, and dinners at her old stalk tower home, which we kept for occasional weekend use ourselves.

"We need more forgon . . . lots of it," my wife noted to me as we were busy in the kitchen of her tower home one evening, trying to feed a hoard of Terrians that were showing up now along with the humans we were hosting. "Can you go get some from the vendors?"

"With what?" I asked from behind my air piece. "My hoverchair barely carries me. And I'm pretty fit and light as it is."

"Oh that's right, you don't fly," she remembered. "I'll get a Terrian to do it."

"Sorry," I sighed.

"I love you," she warmly assured, giving me a brief hug, kiss and gently jolt of energy from behind as I continued making up some minced plant patties, while the first batch was already frying over a Terrian cooking fire in plant oil.

"I know," I assured her with a smile as she then quickly zoomed out of the kitchen to catch a Terrian she knew to get the forgon for us. "Love you, too," I added anyway, turning my attention back to what I was doing as I removed that first batch from the fire. "Hmmm," I now noted, sampling a small piece of one patty with satisfaction. I had the seasonings just right at last. They were practically tasting like synth-meat hamburgers, and good enough to go into full production here. The gourmet Earth Force Commander had saved the evening!

Even without the synthetic wheat buns I had forgotten to bring with us, and which the Terrians didn't know they were missing anyway, my homemade 'plantburgers' were indeed a hit that night. Everyone wanted seconds. I wound up staying 'stuck' in the kitchen all evening, with Kila warmly assuring me I was the, "star of the evening," as she finally led me off to bed later, and a needed change of air packs.

I marveled though whenever we were in town with a human group, seeing how Terrians now just crowded in at the chance to meet and talk with humans informally . . . with our small Earth utility robots on hand and ready to provide quick language instruction downloads to anyone who wanted to talk in the other's tongue. Kila even began arranging a number of informal human-Terrian dates, hosting dinners for some of them in our own quarters.

With all this, she was just running circles around the official cultural exchange and immersion program between the Council and the Eldership, which was still getting off the ground very slowly.

"John, if it hadn't been for you attempting suicide, and Kila being brought in to heal you," President Chen admitted from behind his desk in his office one day, "we'd still be talking about getting this exchange off the ground. But Kila, would you just take over and do it?" he invited with a sigh.

"Already on it, Mister President," she smiled, even picking up English slang now.

"How do you keep up with her?" Chen then asked me as I stood next to her.

"Energy, sir . . . energy," I replied with a smile as Kila just bust out laughing.

That very night we had the first three other Relationship Exchange couples over for dinner whom Kila had already been working to match up—two human men and one woman, who were all paired with opposite gender Terrian partners.

"Being with each other," Kila noted as we all sat down at our dining table before another sumptuous lasagna she and I made together with both Earth and Terrian ingredients, "sure, you'll find some things inconvenient at first, even things you'll have to give up. But there's a magic in what you are about to start exploring together," she added looking at me and taking my hand. "It's something I wouldn't trade for anything now."

And yes, as part of the orientation discussion in our living area afterward, Kila and I answered the "How do you two . . . ?" question, in detail.

"Just tune and flow your energy, so it feels like this," she boldly demonstrated at one point, taking each Terrian participant's hand one by one. In conventional Terrian society, this would have been considered fairly forward, even improper. But she quickly assured us that healers sometimes venture into these areas, much like human therapists might at times.

"It's part of life," she told us all openly when one of the Terrians initially resisted her demonstration, "and life is what we healers deal in."

I noticed a lot of nervousness, and lot of tentativeness that night.

"Humans, don't try and control your thoughts," Kila coached as she went from couple to couple as they held hands with each other. "Just let your partner know who you are . . . they'll discover it sooner or later anyway. If you think your partner is hot, they'll be flattered. If you're uncomfortable with them, it will give them something to work with. You can't go wrong here, okay? And Terrians just tread gently as you sense and explore. You are entering a mind and essence here that has never been known like this before, and never thought it would be."

The discoveries, the recognitions that began to emerge among the couples—the opening, seeing and sharing of minds and hearts . . . it was a wonderful thing to watch.

"If you have any more questions," Kila later invited as we bid goodnight to each of them at our door, "just ask. As you can tell, we don't mind answering them."

I just smiled and kissed my wife.

— — — — —

My own military responsibilities fortunately became light. Not having the Ark to run or a planet to take over anymore, we released a lot of Earth Force personnel to civilian lives, and to help in the construction of the human habitat. We also converted some fighters and bombers back to their combat roles . . . in case anyone else like us ever came from space again. We even taught Terrians to fly them alongside us, and Terrians likewise taught our remaining pilots to begin flying their craft and warship cloud-sailer fighters. My relationship with my Terrian Elder counterpart was cordial enough, but Elder Tino was quiet, and I still felt closer and more comfortable with Doron, and it was him I went to see more often.

With construction lagging on the human habitat though, Kila convinced me, with Chen and Doron's approval, to take a more active role in leading that effort.

"You are an engineer," she reminded me. "So here's something engineering to supervise." A good dose of her energy as well at bedtime that night also helped to win me over. The next day, the habitat became my new 'command' as Project Chief Engineer, and I moved my office into the habitat site, not minding wearing a respirator at all.

Being close to the Elder Complex . . . with some humans darkly thinking it was that way so the elders could keep a good eye on us . . . it was a short commute from our home, shorter than my old one on the Ark had been, and one I began just walking. Snow was certainly different to anything else I had known, but with an extra jacket or my elder robes, walking in it became fun after a while. Thanks to a healthy atmospheric sublimation cycle though, where snow evaporated right back into the air again without melting, the snows here never seemed to become too deep. They just kept recycling . . . a good model and inspiration to me for what we should be achieving on Terra. I began relishing my walks through the snow . . . the crunch of it under my boots, the crispness of the air around me, even though I couldn't breathe it. Kila, being the warmth-craving being she was though, didn't seem to want to go on walks through what to her were "dark and gloomy" snowscapes.

"I'd enjoy walks with you," she assured. "Just in sunshine."

"Let me see what I can do about that," I smiled, welcoming the opportunity to take on the enjoyable challenge of discovering locations over time that we could both enjoy outdoors.

Our new human habitat though was being built on the site of an old Terrian industrial age city. Initially, the Terrians had been simply refurbishing the towers that were already there for us to live in, having to relearn some of their past construction technologies in the process, as they had by now been just hollowing homes out of the living stalk towers that comprised their modern cities for generations.

"No," Kila had forcefully argued however, before both the Council and the Eldership. "I'm finding that humans have a deeply ingrained sense and desire of individuality and freedom of choice. They are already uncomfortable enough at the prospect of living within an enclosed shelter. Just living in towers within that shelter will only make things worse in their minds. They want houses, and a choice. Build a mix of homes comprised of both towers and freestanding houses. That choice will bring them harmony."

"John?" President Chen simply said, turning to me during that Council meeting.

"I'm on it," I replied, slipping my wife a subtle smile across the chamber.

It was done, and once again my Kila was eventually proved right.

Finally the habitat was sealed though, and then flushed with oxygen from several massive generators for the first time, under my supervision. It was as simple as hitting one virtual button on a Terrian plasma display, and then watching it happen over the span of a day. Running the Ark had been a lot more interesting, perhaps because of all the problems it had kept throwing at us.

"Harmony," my wife reminded me, holding my hand as we watched the status holo-displays together in the habitat's new Engineering Centre with me wearing a respirator and her not.

"In this case, harmony's boring," I sighed.

"I'll make it interesting . . . tonight," she quietly hinted.

"Sold," I simply said with a subtle smile as I went back to watching the status displays along with the rest of my team.

The next day, the new Earth air was breathable, and everyone who had been wearing respirators no longer had to, and those who hadn't been now did.

"I wish we could come to breathe the same air somehow," Doron confided to me when we entered the new environment that morning as he donned his respirator mask inside the habitat for the first time. "It is the one great divide that will keep our two peoples separated."

"It's not stopping me, or separating my husband and I," Kila noted next to me as she held my hand and we looked at our collective accomplishment. "We just have to raise generations that will come to consider wearing breathing aids in one another's environments to be as normal as wearing clothing."

"Raising future generations between our peoples is the other problem," Doron noted.

This time, Kila didn't have a ready answer for that one. But that night, at our quarters back in the Elder Complex, she wanted to talk.

"John," she said as she settled into our bed next to me wearing a nightgown and her compact breathing aparatus around her head, "do you want me to get pregnant?"

"Why?" I asked.

"I'd be willing to do it, if you wanted me to," she continued without really answering my question. "It would mean merging energies with another Terrian, allowing my energy to be changed, mating, and all. Any Terrian I did it with wouldn't really mean anything to me. It would still be you I loved. Maybe your medical technologies, which are more advanced than ours, could even impregnate me without mating. Part of me wants to give you a child . . . but only if you want it."

I now paused for a moment. "Kaila was sterile," I finally said, looking vacantly up at the ceiling. "The product of the worn out planet we came from, and from conditions in space. I married her knowing that. I got used to the idea of never having children, because I loved my wife more. I feel the same way about you, Kila. I just love you, and that's enough for me . . . especially since I feel I'm getting a bit old to be a father. If you want a child though, by whatever means you choose, I won't stand in the way. I'll support you, completely . . . because I love you."

"I love you, too, John," she replied, nestled against me. "Maybe you could father a child, too . . . with an available woman."

"That's not happening," I gently declined. "My heart is Kila-shaped now. I wouldn't want to share it with anyone else. And if I couldn't share my heart with anyone else, I couldn't share my body either, even for procreation."

"Not all human men I've helped heal have felt that way," she noted.

"I know," I replied. "But that's the way I feel. It was difficult enough reorienting my heart from Kaila to you. I just couldn't do it with anyone else, even for a night now, and come back to bed with you after that."

"Not even for the good of your people?" she wondered.

"Others can become parents for the good of my people," I answered, looking at the ceiling again.

"Do you feel that's the approach I should take?" she followed up, gently sending calming energy to me as she caressed the side of my face and laid her head on my shoulder.

"No," I responded as I moved to hold her. "You should make your own decision. I've just made mine, and have for some time, that's all."

"I wish I could bear your child," she said quietly.

"I know, Kila," I sniffed, tearing up all on my own this time as we held each other.

"John, share my energy," she invited with a sniff as well.

"I love you, no matter what," I whispered as we began kissing passionately.

— — — — —

The next day, Kila came to me at my office in the habitat.

"John," she said hesitantly, "I've decided to try."

I just got up from my desk, walked around it and took her into a deep embrace. "Go for it, Kila," I tearfully whispered. "I'll be a father with you any day. I just wish I could be the one who impregnates you, too."

She just cried in my arms. We both did.

That evening, I had dinner alone in our quarters. It was the first evening I'd really been apart from Kila in the history of our relationship. So it was definitely Firehouse Chili night. I just made sure I had a stiff nifron to go with it. It was actually fun cooking by myself . . . a chance to remember old times with Kaila, even invite her to taste the chili with me as it simmered over the Terrian cooking fire in the corner of the kitchen.

"Whaddaya think, K?" I asked, speaking my old nickname for Kaila out loud for the first time since she had died. "Whoa, yeah," I replied as my mouth burned and my body shuddered. "That's the ticket, right?"

"Okay, here we go," I soon said as I poured some of the chili out into a bowl. It was like I was on a dinner date now with my late wife, and it actually felt fun, in a tearful sort of way . . . but maybe that was the chili's doing. "Try some strong nifron with me, too," I invited. "Good stuff with this chili."

"Mmmmm," I sighed with satisfaction as both the chili and the nifron were doin' their thing as they went through my mouth and down my throat. "Hey, K," I then paused, looking up, "how you doing up there, or out there? You like my choice in Kila? You must have, because she and I came together real quick. I came so close to joining you," I sniffed. "But you just weren't ready to let me do that, were you? That's not fair though . . . because I couldn't stop it from happening to you . . ."

I now found myself pushing the bowl away before laying my head in my arms on the dining table and sobbing. I still hadn't fully recovered from losing Kaila.

A few moments later, I heard the door to our quarters opening. Kila would be the only one coming in without knocking or announcing themselves. Heck, she'd be about the only one our guards would let through without calling me on the commlink first. Even though I knew I couldn't hide this from her, I sat up and wiped my eyes anyway. Kila came through the kitchen rather than the living area and saw me.

"What have you been crying for?" she sniffed.

"Looks like I could ask you the same question," I sniffed in reply, seeing her own watery eyes.

"John . . ." she said tearing up as I rose from the table and moved to embrace her.

"What is it, Kila?" I asked as I took her in my arms and held her close, realizing it was just so good to have a living wife to hold, even if she floated a quarter metre off the floor.

"I couldn't do it," she whispered. "We got undressed and everything . . . but I couldn't do it with him."

"Kila, I love you," I said as I closed my eyes and held her even tighter.

"You're not disappointed?" she asked.

"No," I sniffed. "I couldn't possibly be disappointed with you . . . no matter what you did."

We both cried warmly in each other's arms.

"My heart's John-shaped," she sniffed as I tearfully smiled with her. "But why were you crying?"

"I was just having Firehouse Chili night with Kaila," I replied. "A dinner date for old times' sake. I just started talking to her over dinner here, and took the conversation in the wrong direction . . . noting that she must have stopped me from dying the way things happened, but then . . . I regretted that I couldn't stop it from happening to her."

Even before I had finished uttering those words, I was feeling a warm, healing flow of energy from Kila. "It's alright," she assured. "It's alright."

I allowed myself to cry again as Kila and I held each other . . . while I purged those toxic feelings of regret and helplessness at watching Kaila be dragged through that hole out into space.

"I see it with you, John," Kila assured as she held me and flowed energy to me. "I am right there with you." She couldn't help but cry at seeing those horrible memories in my mind either. "It's over . . . it's over, okay? Stop repeating those memories and just lay them aside. You'll never forget them, or her. But just lay them aside for now and focus on me, alright? Come back to the present. You're with me, safe in our home. Even Kaila's resting in eternal comfort now. Nothing can hurt her. Nothing. Deep releasing breath, okay? Deep breath."

I just held my mate as I breathed deeply a couple times. I opened my eyes and Kila had done just as she promised. She had brought me back to the present, feeling much lighter and emotionally cleansed. "Thank you," I said gratefully.

"It's what I do," she smiled. "Especially for you. But you still got some of that chili though?"

"Why?" I sniffed. "You don't like it. That's another reason I made it tonight."

"I need something to take my mind off of what happened with me this evening," she sniffed in reply as we looked at each other. "And there is nothing on this planet that will take my mind off of things like that chili will. It just won't give me a choice."

We both tearfully laughed in each other's arms. "I can do other things that will take your mind off of things, like a good massage."

"I'll take that, too," she quickly agreed. "Plus I want to just share some mind-blowing energy with you. But first, give me that chili."

"One searing bowl coming up," I promised. "Along with some stiff nifron to put out the fire."

"My kinda night!" Kila enthused as I sat her down at our table.

We had the best dinner the two of us had ever known in those quarters, both swearing at the end of it that we would never, ever torture our mouths and guts like that again . . . but loving every minute of it, and each other, anyway.

Then I laid her down on our bed and proceeded to give her a massage that soothed away everything, even the chili. Kila, of course, returned the favor, flowing energy between us in just the right ways. And they were mind-blowing, just as she'd promised.

"I wouldn't trade this for anything now," she said as we lay spent in bed in each other's arms afterward.

"Anything?" I asked knowingly.

"Anything," she affirmed. "And Jorn and Kaila . . . I think they'd understand."

"You okay not being a mother?" I then wondered.

"With you, yeah," she decided. "Just goes with the territory, as your kind says. And John, I like this territory with you. I love it."

"I couldn't ask for better either, Kila," I echoed, "than what I have with you. But here," I then offered reaching above us to a shelf in the headboard of our bed. "Let's switch to your old respirator for tonight, because between the chili and those tubes, you're just streaming mucus."

"I know," she sighed, a little stuffed up.

"Here you are," I said, putting her respirator gently over her mouth, before removing the plastic tubes from her nostrils and the band off her head as well, plus undoing the collar around her neck and placing the compact respirator assembly they were connected to out of the way on the headboard shelf. I then reached for a ready handkerchief. "Okay, blow," I encouraged as I held it over her nostrils while carefully keeping it out of her eyes.

Kila dutifully did as I encouraged, her eyes smiling at me the whole time.

"We'll clean those tubes out in the morning," I said as I lay the handkerchief aside as well.

"John, you'd make such a good father," she sighed through her mask as she relaxed in my arms.

"I know," I agreed, caressing her face. "And you'd make such a good mother, too. But we have each other to care for. And to me, that's enough . . . all I could ask for really."

"Me, too," she agreed, raising her mask as we shared a goodnight kiss.

Despite all that had happened to each of us, and despite all our limitations . . . life could not be better for Kila and I. It just couldn't.

— — — — —

Which made what happened a few mornings later all the more surprising.

"Kila?" I mumbled as I began to wake in bed, not finding her next to me for the first time in our marriage.

Hearing no response from her, I rose from bed, putting on a loose shirt and began looking for her. She wasn't in the bathroom. "Kila?" I called again as I checked our dining area and kitchen. As I entered our living room, I finally heard some quiet sniffling . . . coming from her Terrian safe room. I went back to the bedroom to grab my respirator so I could enter that space, as I had a feeling that whatever was going on, it wasn't good.

Buckling the airpack around my waist as I put the respirator's collar over my head and around my neck, I quietly crossed the living room and found her in her armchair in the safe room. She was sitting in the chair, dressed in one of her multi-colored Terrian bodysuits this time, and practically curled up into a ball. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her tail, which was folded like we would fold our legs in such a situation, and her face was buried against her tail as she continued to quietly cry.

"Kila . . . what's wrong?" I gently asked as I just knelt down at the doorway to the room on the other side of the clear curtain, realizing she might need a little space at first, and wanting her to invite me in.

"Go away," she sniffed.

"I don't know if I can do that," I replied, quietly shocked at her response, but wanting to give her understanding love all the more now.

"Go away!" she repeated.

"Why don't you just tell me what happened," I invited instead. "I'm here to help, whatever it is."

"How could you think such things?" she pointedly asked in reply, at least raising her head somewhat, but looking out a window instead of at me.

"Think what things?" I gently wondered.

"You should know!" she shot back, staring out the window. "You were dreaming them!"

"I'm not remembering what I dreamed right now. Could you tell me?" I replied.

"You don't _remember_ that?" she angrily countered, finally glancing my way with the most incensed look I'd ever seen from her.

"Kila," I sighed looking down and now moving to sit cross-legged on the floor at the doorway. "I swear . . . I don't know what you're talking about. I wish I did. I wish I could just touch you the way you touch me and know exactly what you're hinting at. But you're going to have to tell me, okay?"

"You tried to _kill_ me!" she practically screamed at me. "You tried to kill me . . . w-with this laser saw! I woke up hearing you mumbling a little in bed and twitching some, so I lovingly wrapped my arms around you and tapped into your mind and got sucked into this hideous dream of yours! Before I knew it I was strapped down on a table and you were wearing this mask and sawing into me. There was blood everywhere! It was all I could do to disengage and yank myself out of that dream," she now sobbed. "And you . . . you kept right on sleeping through it!"

"Oh," I now realized looking down. "That would have been from an old horror holomovie I used to see. Kaila introduced me to those . . . but that was years ago now. She liked harshness in her movies sometimes, right along with harshness in her food. My movie preferences were mellower . . . _a_ _lot_ mellower. I had what we call bad dreams or nightmares for the longest time about those. I guess my mind got used to them, accepted them after a while though."

"T-That was _entertainment_ for you?" Kila wondered incredulously.

"I tried to get into it for Kaila's sake," I admitted with a shrug, "and there were times I could kind of enjoy this demonic aspect to it all . . . but I never took it all that seriously. I couldn't, and I didn't want to. They were just movies . . . stories designed to give us a good scare and shock, that's all. We humans, some of us anyway, like being scared at times. I'm not really that way. I'd forgotten about all that actually . . . put it behind me."

"That you could even think such a thing," she sobbed, " . . . I can't trust you anymore."

"Kila, those dreams are not who I am," I gently tried to assure.

"Our dreams are who we are among my kind," she sniffed. "Plus, if you had managed to finish killing me in that dream and I thought I was dead before I pulled out, I could have died here . . . really died."

"Kila, I'm sorry," I apologized sadly. "Maybe don't tap into my dreams anymore then."

"Ohh I assure you, I'm not going to," she swore. "But I can't stay here with you anymore, either," she said now getting up out of the chair, donning her old respirator and brushing right past me out through the living room before I could even get up on my feet again.

"Kila, read my mind, now," I challenged as I followed her to our bedroom. "Know my conscious heart . . . all of it. I love you, and I could never deliberately hurt you in real life. I couldn't."

"How can I really know that now?" she challenged as she began throwing some of her things into a satchel. "How?"

"Read me!" I said grabbing her arm with my hand.

"No!" she countered, yanking her arm back out of my grasp. "Jorn could never think or dream such things as you have here. I felt safe with him! I no longer do with you."

"Kila, that's not fair," I gently protested, now feeling hurt myself.

"What your mind did to me was not fair," she countered.

"I've told you before, our minds aren't entirely disciplined as yours are," I replied with more than a little exasperation now. "We have no real control over our subconscious. That's a difference between our species . . . one I thought you had accepted by now."

"Well, I haven't!" she angrily replied as she finished stuffing her bag with all it could carry.

"Kila, you can't do this," I said. "What about the promises? The vows we made, both personally to Doron and Joe, and before everyone? Remember, we promised to work things out, whatever it was . . . not part ways. This certainly qualifies as whatever. Are you gonna break your promise now, to them . . . and to me?"

"I can't trust you anymore," she said, looking down as she now picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I'll figure out what to tell Doron and everyone else later. Goodbye," she said to my utter shock as she then floated out of not only our room, but out of our quarters as well.

I then just sat, completely stupefied, on the corner of our bed. Finally a few moments later, I had the presence of mind to put proper pants on and poke my head out our front door.

"Everything alright, sir?" I heard, turning my head to see our human guard still at his post.

"Nope," I sighed. "There's been a real misunderstanding. Where's your Terrian counterpart?"

"Your wife took him with her," my guard replied. "Even had him take down her healer's sign and carry it for her."

I turned my head, and sure enough, the sign was now gone.

"Sir," he added, "she went away saying that it's all been a mistake . . . a horrible mistake. She was even saying that in English."

I sighed, shook my head, even sadly laughed a little in disbelief.

"Stay here," I instructed my guard, "in case by some miracle she comes back."

"Where are you going, sir?" he asked as I started walking down the hall.

"Just next door," I replied, now taking a few steps along the corridor and knocking on the one door I knew I could count on for help.

"John," Mike said as his door slid open between us. "You look like you just woke up. You out of coffee or something?"

"Mike," I sighed, "it's a whole lot worse than that."

— — — — —

"Okay," Joe Chen paused, taking a breath as I was still sitting on Mike's couch later, trying to recover. "I just spoke with Doron. The elders have found Kila back at her old home, but she steadfastly does not want to talk or try making up with you."

"Great," I sighed with growing sadness. "Something my screwed-up subconscious does, that I don't even have control over . . . and it wrecks my marriage, just when it was getting good."

"Both Doron and I agree that if she talks, it could damage relations between our people," Joe cautioned. "If she publicly says she can't trust you, that could really be a problem . . . for all of us."

"It's already a problem for me, sir! A damn painful one!" I now shot back as I buried my face in my hands.

"Have some hot chocolate, John," Sharon tried to soothe, giving me a mug as she sat down next to me, placing a hand on my back and rubbing a little. "It's what Kaila used to give you to help you feel better, remember?"

"Like I need to be remembering all that now, too," I now sniffed, brushing the mug away still in her hand. "Sorry . . ." I then corrected myself. "I'm sorry."

"I understand, John," Sharon assured as she kept rubbing my back anyway. "It's okay."

"Excuse me," Joe said as his commlink beeped again and he went off to another room to answer it, while I just tried to recover by taking deep, releasing breaths . . . as Kila had taught me.

"John, I'm so sorry," Mike tried to empathize, sitting on my other side.

"Not half as sorry as I am," I sniffed.

"What do you want to do?" he asked, laying a hand on my shoulder. "Do you want to end it . . . with Kila?"

"Hell no," I replied finally looking at least across the room as my hands remained cupped over my nose and mouth. "I love her, Mike . . . I still love her."

"John," Joe now said in a subdued tone as he came back into the room. "The elders have decided to intervene with Kila. Doron says it's too critical . . . for all of us."

"Intervene?" I asked, looking up at him. "What does that mean?"

"They've detained her . . . against her will," he soberly replied. "They're bringing her back to the Elder Complex. He says she will undergo corrective treatments with several healers together. He assures me she will be your wife again."

"God no," I realized with a shock. "They'll take her mind from her, erase her will."

"It's sounding something like that," Joe reluctantly confirmed.

I just lowered my face back into my hands.


	9. Chapter 9

I was going to lose Kila . . . but so was she.

Yet I was being promised that I'd get her back. But just who she would be, I didn't know.

"Doron says this sometimes has to happen to preserve harmony," Joe continued explaining to me as I tried to grapple with the shock of what was about to be done to my wife. "Now that you and Kila are married, and a symbol of the harmony our two peoples need to share . . . nothing can come in the way of that."

"What if it was me?" I tearfully asked. "What if I was the one who wanted out? Would you let them mess with my mind, too? Forcibly put me back in line against my will?"

"No," Joe assured. "That's not our way. But it apparently is theirs, and Kila is Terrian. I don't agree with it, but I don't think there is anything I can do here."

"She's a member of our Earth Council," I noted, looking down. "Shouldn't that count for something?"

"You want her to leave you then?" Chen asked.

"No," I said with growing determination now. "But I'll fight for who she is, and whatever she wants to do. I love her that much."

— — — — —

"John, you can't do this," Joe cautioned me again as we walked across the hangar in the Elder Complex with our respirators on a short while later. "This is now an internal Terrian matter and something we cannot interfere with."

"Kila is also a member of the Earth Council," I shot back as I kept walking. "That makes her one of our citizens, even a leader. And it is my sworn duty as a member of Earth Force, even its commander, to protect our Council members from harm, let alone each and every citizen. I don't need Council approval to do that."

"Neither you nor she can risk or damage relations between our peoples," he responded.

"Sir, we can debate the merits of this all you like, once her safety is assured," I responded. "That is all I am doing, assuring her safety—as the person she is. I am simply placing an Earth Force guard around a member of the Earth Council. No one should be able to argue with that."

Joe now jerked me by the arm over to one side, while stopping the squad of armed soldiers I was leading with a raised hand.

"Alright," he then quietly said to me. "Personally, I am with you on this one. But as president, if this gets ugly, I will disavow your actions, and even surrender you to Terrian justice if I have to. As you have said yourself, we have nowhere else to go. This planet is it for us. We have no choice but to live with the Terrians, even when they do things to their own kind that we don't necessarily approve of. Just bear the fate of the rest of us in mind as you try to save a wife who says she doesn't even love you anymore."

"As long as one of us loves the other, that's all that matters to me," I replied.

"Go," Chen then said quietly. "I've put up my show of resistance. And if you can, tell Kila from me how lucky she is to have you fighting for her."

"Thank you, sir," I said practically with tears in my eyes now as I raised my hand to salute him.

"Don't salute me!" he whispered intensely, grabbing my hand and forcing it back down again. "I'm supposed to be vehemently disagreeing with you! Now git!"

"Yes sir!" I whispered back myself, strenuously trying to conceal my smile. "People, come with me!" I then called out leading my squad forward again as we now swept past President Chen.

Trying to minimize trouble, I had ordered the squad to carry only laser pistols, not assault rifles, and to dress in Earth Force tan service fatigues, rather than our more menacing grey ground combat outfits with their dark-visored helmets.

Suddenly, my commlink beeped.

"Meyers here," I replied as I held it.

"Sir, it's Konor, Kila's guard," I heard quietly on the commlink. "Kila's in danger, sir. I wanted to call you earlier—"

"Yes, I'm aware," I interrupted, cutting him off. "Where are you? What's happening?"

"We're in the lab section, Central Column," he quietly replied. "Four healers are beginning treatment on her . . . she's resisting." I briefly closed my eyes in pain as I could hear screams via the commlink confirming what he was saying.

"Stay there," I said quietly back to him. "I'm on my way with a contingent. We're coming to protect her as an Earth Councilor."

"Thank you, sir," I heard in reply. "Konor out."

"People, double time! This way!" I ordered as I changed our direction now and we all began running.

Soon we arrived at the primary column that contained the Terrian lab facilities.

"_Stand aside_," I ordered in Terrian to the Terrian guards posted at the entrance.

The two guards looked at me, at the squad of armed soldiers behind me, at each other, and finally at the simple steel spears they were carrying. Although elders had been trained to fight with their spears in a variety of ways, even they knew they were no match for our laser pistols. Plus they fortunately hadn't yet been issued with Earth commlinks to ask anyone else if they should let me pass. Thank God for slow-moving bureaucracies!

"_Stand aside_," I repeated in Terrian.

Knowing I was both Earth Force Commander and a Terrian Elder higher in rank than they were, the two guards finally decided to obey as I was hoping they would.

My contingent and I caused quite a stir as we walked rapidly around the edge of the circular Elder Control Room and into the Lab Section as I heard blood-curdling screams coming from beyond one set of doors there. Konor now met up with us and kept pace beside me.

"_Stand aside_," I repeated in Terrian to the elder guards posted at the one set of lab doors as well.

"A treatment is being performed," one of the Terrian guards told me in English. "You cannot interrupt."

"Squad, take them aside for interfering with Earth Force access to an Earth Councilor," I ordered, orally justifying my actions in front of witnesses, both Terrian and human, every step of the way now, in case I might need it in front of a court marshal later.

Once again outmatched, these guards now allowed themselves to be hauled aside by several of my soldiers from the doors at gunpoint.

"How do we open these doors?" I then asked Konor.

"_Computer, open doors_," he said in Terrian, to my surprise. "We don't have locks, computer or otherwise, or even doors in most cases," he explained to me in English as the doors compliantly opened. "There's no need for them. It's just not Terrian. But in doing this, I have just committed an unpardonable offense . . . which is why we don't need locks."

"You are now the first Terrian in Earth Force," I assured him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "And you're acting under my orders in protection of an Earth Councilor."

"Y-Yes sir," he replied uncertainly.

I then led my contingent inside as three of our number now took up positions outside the door.

We entered the room amid continued screaming to find four healers gathered around Kila with their hands on her head, their eyes closed in deep concentration. She was strapped down on a table, writhing and crying out in gut-wrenching agony. Worst of all, her head and cranial tail were raised slightly, locked in a kind of vise to keep them still.

"_Stop and step aside!_" I now ordered in Terrian. "_We are here to protect a duly-appointed member of the Earth Council!_"

"_Proceed_," I now heard Doron counter in Terrian. "John, do not interfere," he now said switching to English.

"Detain the healers," I calmly ordered my soldiers, "and protect the Earth Councilor."

"John," Doron calmly protested as several of my team now forcibly pulled the four healers away from Kila at gunpoint, while other Earth Force soldiers now surrounded the table she was on facing outwards with laser pistols drawn as well. "You cannot interrupt the treatment. It must be completed."

"It never will be," I countered, "so long as Kila is a member of the Earth Council under my protection, and so long as I am her husband. She has the right to love me in her own way . . . and also the freedom to leave me if she feels she needs to. _That_ is our way."

"John?" I now heard weakly behind me from the table.

"Watch my back," I directed one of my soldiers beside the table as I now turned my attention towards the Terrian I loved, no matter what.

"Yes sir!" the guard replied as I moved behind him.

"Kila . . ." I now said softly to her. It tore me apart inside to see her strapped down upon that table as she was . . . especially seeing her head clamped in that vise.

"John, Kila is in between now," Doron cautioned behind me. "She is of two minds . . . half old, and half new. We are doing this for you, for all of us, as much as for her and her happiness. She was sick in mind, with an irrational fear and distrust . . . one that was not healthy for her, or for any of us. Your people do not tolerate such unhealthy thinking either—otherwise you would not have put Roland Meyers to death the way you did."

That now chilled me, as Doron was not entirely off the mark with his comments.

"Don't you think this is kinder, to both her, and you?" Doron posed, "Instead of putting her to death?"

"Kila would not have harmed anyone, other than me . . . and my heart," I said now looking at her, as she had a disturbingly glazed look in her eyes. "Kila," I now said, focusing on her, " . . . it's me, John."

"John . . ." she said, her eyes now looking towards me, unable to turn her head in that vise, " . . . y-you . . . I'm sorry . . . was wrong to leave you . . ."

"Kila, is that you talking?" I gently asked as I now reached and caressed the side of her head. "The you that was talking to me this morning?"

"I-I . . . don't know," she said vacantly, almost lost.

"You cannot leave her like that," Doron warned. "That would be the cruelest thing of all to her . . . not to fully know who she is."

"Or who you want her to be," I said sharply, now glancing back at him. "I didn't think your people were capable of such things as this."

"We do not kill each other. You do," he calmly responded.

"To us, this kind of mind treatment is killing," I replied to him. "You just kill a person's spirit, but not their body. We're at least honest in recognizing what we do."

"This could cost everything, John," Doron cautioned, " . . . all we've worked for together."

"It won't," I replied, now looking at a lost Kila again. "I swear to both our peoples, Kila and I will work this out, in our own way . . . to the benefit, and harmony, of all."

"John . . . help me," Kila weakly said to me.

"I'm helping you, right now," I assured her, as she closed her eyes in seeming relief with the warm thoughts I was sending her as I continued to caress her head.

"Take me . . . home," she then requested.

"Which home do you want to go to, Kila?" I gently asked, stroking her head again. "Yours in the city, or ours here in the Elder Complex?"

She seemed to think about it for a moment. "Could we . . ." she finally said, looking at me, " . . . be in mine?"

"Yes, Kila," I now gently smiled. "Of course we can."

I now released her from the vise and table restraints myself, taking her limp form gently into my arms.

"People, release the healers and escort us to one of our shuttles, and call for a pilot. Plus Konor, you're still Kila's guard. Stick with us," I directed as I now turned to leave with my wife.

"I hope you know what you're doing, John," Doron cautioned as we were about to leave the lab room now.

"You want to see real harmony, real love?" I challenged, looking at him. "Then just watch Kila and I."

Kila began crying as I carried her in my arms out of the room under our armed escort.

"It's alright, Kila," I tearfully assured, gripping her tightly. "It's alright. You're safe now. We are not going to lose you."

She just reached a hand up to the side of my head. A gentle, tearful smile was now on her face as she looked at me.

Finally, we emerged from the column and began to cross the surrounding hangar to a Plus-wing fighter that was being fired up for us.

"I love you," I said to Kila as I carried her.

"I know . . ." she replied softly.

— — — — —

I didn't let Kila out of my arms for a second. I even held her as I strapped us both into the same standing slot together behind the pilot in the plus-wing fighter as Konor and my squad leader, a somewhat short but experienced sergeant with a buzz cut under his tan cap named Tom McNairy, strapped themselves in beside Kila and I.

"Maintain Terrian atmosphere inside the cockpit here," I directed the pilot. "I don't have a respirator for Kila handy right now."

"Yes sir," our pilot replied as the cockpit visor closed in front of all of us, and the cockpit itself then rotated up into flight position. "_Plus-wing Zero-Seven-Four requesting clearance for departure,_" the pilot then commed in Terrian.

"Departure granted," a voice calmly replied, as if nothing at all had happened.

The pilot pressed his two control sticks forward, and we blasted up through a portal into the sky, and off to the city.

_Kila, can you hear me?_ I then thought to her as I held both her hand and the rest of her strapped in front of me.

"Yes," she confirmed, turning her head to look at me.

_Do you feel safe with me?_ I gently asked with my mind.

"Yes," she replied again, as she now placed her free hand over mine.

I couldn't help tearing up as she did that. She just quietly laid her forehead against my jaw and neck as the fighter flew us across the cloud-covered landscape. The energy I was feeling from her now was surprisingly weak, and not like her. I tried to control my thoughts, even my hopes, as Kila seemed to briefly sleep against me while I continued holding her upright in the slot.

We now approached Kila's city . . . her hometown, and were soon flying among its mushroom-like stalk towers. With an Earth Plus-wing fighter entering town, I imagined everyone knew who was paying another visit, but fortunately, we didn't seem to be attracting crowds like our arrivals sometimes tended to. I guided the pilot to Kila's tower home before we then slowed and hovered in front of it.

"We're here, at your home," I told Kila as I gently released us both from our slot restraints and cradled her in my arms again. She barely responded with a quiet moan though as I knelt down, balancing her fortunately light body, as I squeezed us both through the hatch into the multi-purpose bay behind the cockpit.

"Okay," I directed the pilot as I continued kneeling, cradling Kila tight in my arms. "Project us into the front door . . . carefully."

Through the hatch, I could see the pilot then watching a holodisplay beside his seat as he activated the onboard force field emitter, literally picking Kila and I up in a green ball of energy and projecting us out through the bay's opening visor into the air. I was hoping the force field wouldn't clash or mess with my wife's own energy as it held us both. Kila just appeared to be exhausted now though, and seemed little affected one way or the other by the force field as we levitated across the gap high in the air between the hovering fighter and the front door of her home. Finally, we were carefully set down on the floor just inside her doorway before the field released us. McNairy soon followed in another projected force field ball, while Konor flew over to us on his own.

I then gratefully waived the pilot off before I stood up with Kila in my arms again and carried her off to her bedroom. She didn't say a thing as I laid her down in the queen-size bed we had been keeping there for our weekend getaways. I could only imagine the real-life nightmare this day had been for her.

My commlink beeped a little later as I watched her fade back off to sleep.

"Meyers," I replied quietly as I turned the unit's volume down to minimum.

"The rest of our squad has now arrived, sir," McNairy reported, "in a Terrian patrol ship no less."

"What?" I asked in quiet amazement, turning away on the corner of the bed, trying not to disturb Kila.

"Our people say an Elder offered it to them as they were lining up to board three Plus-wings," he continued. "Said it would be more efficient. They've even been escorting each soldier across one of the ship's wings to reach the home here. We are deployed at points throughout the home now. All possible access points are being watched. But rest assured sir, you have privacy where you are. Plus some of Kila's Terrian guard is now asking to help keep watch as well. They say they do not want to see her harmed. Can we trust them?"

"Have Konor take charge of them. We can trust him as he has already helped us, and I've even made him one of us," I decided. "Have them guard the outside of the home. We can't float in the air like they can. But break it down into shifts. I think the Elders are telling us we don't have much to worry about. Have anyone who wants use the spare bedroom and the living room. A couple of the sofas can be made into beds. Tell everyone to feel free to raid the kitchen, too. We stocked it well the last time we were here."

"Yes sir," the reply came back. "McNairy out."

"Okay, this throws me for a loop," I quietly said to myself, now drawing a deep breath from my air piece as I turned back and looked at my wife sleeping. Part of me wanted to wake her to ask her for her thoughts on what the heck the Elders were doing, but I wound up just watching her, for the longest time.

I had a feeling that the damage had been done however. I didn't know who Kila would wake up as, or whether she would love me or leave me. It didn't matter that much anymore. Well, it did matter to me—but what was more important than anything else was that she wake up as who she wanted to be.

I gently took her hand now as she slept, feeling a faint energy of hers I loved so much. I prayed and meditated, trying to impart harmony, love, and strength to her . . . hoping it would be enough, hoping she would just come back. I'd even accept her the way she had been this morning.

— — — — —

Finally, she began stirring in bed late that night as I continued to watch her by soft candlelight, not bothering to eat or drink myself, even though I couldn't remember having taken anything in all day now.

"How are you doing?" I asked the Terrian I had risked everything for, as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Where are we?" she asked looking around the room a little as she continued lying in bed, seeming to talk somewhat clearer and more normally.

"We're in your tower home, as you asked," I gently assured as I stroked the side of her head. "Do you remember?"

"Sort of," she said.

"Do you know who I am?" I asked with some hesitation, but wanting to know the truth anyway.

"You're . . . John," she said slowly as she looked at me.

"Do you remember what happened between us this morning?" I reluctantly followed up.

"No . . ." she said to my inward shock.

This morning now seemed to be a clean slate for her. I sat quietly for a moment, weighing my options . . . help her remember and risk losing her again, or allow her to just forget it, and try to move on together.

"Do you want to remember?" I decided, giving her the choice as I continued to caress her.

"They said I was sick in mind, unfaithful to you," she softly said with some confusion and difficulty as she tried to piece together what she could remember. "Was I?"

"No," I gently assured. "You were just very frightened, that's all."

"I was?" she asked.

"Uh huh," I nodded. "I remember what happened. Would you like to tap those memories and remember, too? You can if you want," I offered. "It's your choice."

"Should I?" she asked hesitantly. "Would it make me be bad to you again?"

"I trust you," I decided. "I want you to be the person you were, even if it means you feel again that you can't stay with me."

"But I want to stay with you," Kila said. "It's where I belong."

"That's your treatment talking," I replied as my own choice now became clear. "Love isn't love . . . if it isn't free, and freely given. I want you back the way you were, Kila . . . even if it means I lose you all over again, because that's how much I love you," I sniffed.

"Would you love me the way I am now?" she asked.

"I love you the way you choose to be," I replied, "not how others force you to be."

"You would protect me if I became the way I was again?" she asked. "Became too scared to be with you again, as you say I was?"

"Yes," I nodded with tearful assurance.

"I don't like not knowing," she said, looking down, "feeling like a piece of me is missing . . . even maybe a bad piece."

"Then touch my mind," I calmly invited. "Know again the you that I've known . . . and loved, with all my heart."

Kila now tentatively reached a hand for the side of my head. I felt a probing energy reach deep into my mind this time as she touched me, taking us both back to our fateful morning, and forcing us to relive it all from my perspective at an accelerated speed, but with me feeling every uncertain and even painful emotion. While seeing a determined Kila pack and leave all over again was sad enough for me . . . seeing her once more screaming on that lab table, struggling to hold onto the last shreds of herself, was far worse.

Suddenly, with a rush I found myself back sitting beside Kila as she lay in bed, while she now withdrew her hand from me. She then just lay against her pillows, looking at me for the longest time.

"Well?" I finally asked.

"John," she replied, just looking steadily at me for another moment, but saying nothing else as she now rested a hand on my arm, loosely gripping it.

"What is it?" I asked. "Do you want me to go? I will, if you want me to."

"If I ever get scared again," she replied, "by tapping your nightmares, or anything else . . . would you remind me of this moment, right now?"

"Why?" I asked, with a subtle smile nonetheless beginning to grow on my face.

"Because no one . . . not one other solitary being, not even Jorn," she said, "has ever loved me like you have today. Come to me . . . come here," she tearfully invited as we both embraced tightly, crying openly together. "Thank you for saving me," she whispered as she wept. "What can I ever do to repay you?"

"Just be you," I sniffed, raising my head to look at her as tears dripped from my eyes onto her face. "Just be you."

She just drew me down onto the bed as she proceeded to surge a deep, passionate energy into me. She wrapped her arms tightly around my neck as I wrapped mine tightly around the rest of her. I smiled as one of her fingers would periodically hit the button to drop my air piece, allowing us to kiss fervently, before she would then break off the kiss, raise my air piece back and allow me to take a breath as she looked deep into my eyes before we did it all over again.

I loved Kila. I loved her so profoundly . . . and she knew. She knew it all.

"Thank you, John," she sighed as our passions finally subsided.

I couldn't say a thing as I just tearfully held her tightly, marveling at her presence and her love again.

"You're hungry," she sensed with a smile. "And I'm not even tapping your mind, just listening to your stomach . . . and mine, too."

"You want me to carry you to the kitchen for a midnight snack . . . even a buffet?" I invited.

"Nah, I can get up," she assured as we both began to rise from the bed. "Let's go get something to eat, and assure our guards I'm okay now."

"You're recovering quickly," I admired.

"I have you," she simply replied as she took my hand and led me out of the bedroom.

As we went to the kitchen, I sensed something was a little different about Kila . . . it was like there was also this other side to her now. Part of it I knew, but part I didn't.

Seeing we were both up though, many of our guards began gathering around us as we passed through the home. Finally, we all stopped in the living room.

"I want to thank each of you for protecting me," Kila said beside me to our guards, " . . . but you can all go home now. John is all the protection I need," she then told them to my surprise. "That the elders brought most of you here says loud and clear we don't need to worry about them."

Once again, she had tapped more of my memories than I had expected. Kila seemed fully up to speed now on what was going on, without my having told her much of anything. I was now getting the insight from her I had wanted earlier though, so I just let her continue.

"M'am, what if it's a trick?" Sergeant McNairy asked.

"Terrians just don't practice open deception, Tom," my wife assured. "If the Elders offered, and brought you here, that's their way of assuring us that we have nothing to worry about. I am back where they want me to be, where they feel everything will be safe with me being . . . beside my husband. Have Elder Control send a ship to take you back. That will reassure them even further. The only way I could be in trouble now would be if I left John again . . . and I'm not going to do that, of my own free will," she finished, looking at me.

"Let's go back to our standard guard," I decided. "One human, one Terrian. We'll need two each to cover the night watches here, and maybe a couple more for the day watches, but the rest of you can call for that ship and go home. I half married Kila for her insights," I sighed now looking at her, "and I think she's called it dead on here."

"Let's get that snack and then go to bed, husband," she now invited. "It's been a very long day . . . for both of us. And John's right," she added, still looking at me. "There's plenty in the kitchen, so eat up . . . whether you're on duty, or waiting for that ship. Goodnight, everyone."

"Goodnight, m'am, sir," our guards collectively replied as I smiled at both them, and her.

After eating a little forgon with some grondor cheese topping together in the kitchen, I was a little surprised as Kila then proceeded to usher me into the bedroom, and even undress me, before undressing herself, blowing out the candles around us and slipping into bed beside me.

"No hot nifron?" I wondered, as she seemed to be skipping a nightly ritual of ours.

"I have something else in mind that I want to do," she replied, turning towards me in bed. I didn't quite know just what to expect here. "Now," she then said, changing her tone some as she laid her hands on my head while we lay together, "just lie still, because I'm gonna take us on a little trip . . . to see that whacko with the laser saw. And I don't mean you. But we're gonna give him a good dose of his own medicine for messing with our dreams and causing us all this grief . . . and then, I am gonna take you, the way a human female would."

"Oh. My. God . . ." was all I could say as she then paralyzed me with a surprising and commanding energy I had never felt from her before, while she proceeded to take us both into a dream adventure that was equal parts vengeful blood-filled horror and incredible passion . . . a vivid combined experience that I am still recovering from.

— — — — —

"Morning," I heard . . . to my alarm.

"Aaaaaah!" I exclaimed as I practically jumped out of my skin, sitting bolt upright in bed.

"Easy . . . Easy," Kila soothed sitting beside me, stroking a hand across my chest and feeding me calming energy now. "What, that visit to our Roman villa again didn't calm you down enough?" she asked with a subtle smile.

"It's what happened before that," I replied trying to regain my breath and calm my beating heart, as she gently encouraged me to lie back down in bed. "I thought Kaila was intense about that stuff . . . but you? Wow."

"I was mad, that's all," Kila replied as she then snuggled up against me. "But not at you. I hope you know that."

"The way you made love to me after you killed him?" I replied, still wide-eyed. "I know it."

"I just learned here that I don't like being the victim, not being in control," she calmly noted as we continued to hold each other close. "I actually began to enjoy that horror stuff a little, once I was giving rather than receiving. I can see why you humans are somewhat attracted to it."

"Are you really Kila?" I asked with a degree of concern as I turned my head and looked at her in our bed. "You know . . . kind, sweet, loving Kila . . . the Terrian I married?"

"She's in here . . . somewhere," my mate assured. "But I was messed with yesterday. I've decided I don't like that, and I won't put up with it again . . . from anyone. You okay with that?"

"Yes m'am," I replied, half in admiration but half in fear, as I looked at her now, somewhat stunned and uncertain.

"Relax, my John," she now smiled, nuzzling me. "All this will never, ever be directed at you, okay? You saved me, and I am not forgetting that, period. I'm the one who will always owe you. You want something, anything, and you got it from me . . . no questions asked, ever. But," she then sighed as we both heard a familiar humming alert next to me, "you've breathed through your oxygen pack here. I found only one more left in your nightstand over there as I allowed you to sleep some more this morning, and I'm sensing that you didn't bring any others with you. While I suppose we could borrow one or two from your guards, and as much as we deserve way more time here, we should be going home . . . to our home. I have some business I want to attend to."

"Kila?" I couldn't help wondering still as I looked at her. "You're not . . . ?"

"It's me, my love," she smiled as she caressed my face, reading my uncertainty. "I'm really here . . . there's just a little more in me now, too. I love you, and I am so very grateful. And no, I won't do to anyone here what I did in our dream together. I got it all out of my system there, as you say . . . and I feel much better."

"I just want to know the partner I love is back beside me," I sniffed as I held her unclothed form close to me, " . . . really back beside me."

"Well, here she is . . . just the way you know her," my wife smiled as she took charge, rolled me onto my back, and paralyzed me with exquisitely pleasurable energy, just the way I had come to love from her so well, all while she made sure I kept breathing on my respirator.

"Relax and surrender," she assured with a smile. "I've got everything under control here."

I did . . . and it was wonderful.

— — — — —

"Doron, I would speak with you . . . in private," Kila said firmly, in English, dressed in her blue Earth Council suit later. I was standing next to her in my full Earth Force uniform breathing through my respirator with a fresh airpack, as we found him in the Elder Control Room soon after our return.

I knew he had never been spoken to this way before . . . probably not by anyone other than his mother anyway. Nonetheless, he gestured off towards a side room.

_Easy,_ I thought to Kila through our clasped hands as we entered and a door slid closed behind the three of us. Kila just gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Doron," she then said, turning towards him once we were inside his office and the door had closed, " . . . I trusted you, like a father. I trusted all that we were, and what we fought for recently . . . until yesterday. As difficult as it was for my husband to let me go my own way, as wrong and fear-driven as I may have been . . . he loved me. He fought for me, risking everything.

"But you," she continued, " . . . you tried to have me killed yesterday. Killed! Erased! Turned into a brainless, compliant, obedient shadow of myself who would obey my husband and never even think of leaving him because I was programmed to. Programmed! I know everything, because my husband allowed, even invited, me to tap and relive his memories of what happened. I cannot tell you how betrayed, how angry I feel."

"He was not with you when we were," Doron calmly responded, "at your home as you were saying, 'Humans are barbaric! They cannot be trusted with what is in their minds!' Do you know how poisonous, how dangerous such talk can be between our people and theirs? Especially coming from you, the first among us to be bonded with a human. If your talk had gotten out, there would be Terrians attacking humans even right now, out of fear. How many would you want to die on each side, just so you could keep irrationally saying what you did? And your mate, John? What did he do to deserve what you did to him? You violated your solemn vows yesterday, to him, and to all of us. I am disappointed in you, Kila, and you should be grateful . . . very grateful, that John interceded for you, despite what you did to him."

"Kila and I would have worked this out," I interjected. "Without any treatments."

"How much mass fear and violence were you prepared to risk or tolerate among the rest of us so you could 'work it out' between the two of you?" Doron countered. "Harmony comes at a price sometimes. You know that, having executed Roland Meyers to maintain it."

"He was offered treatment and refused it," I replied.

"Just as Kila was, and did," Doron countered.

"I was scared, frightened," Kila now seemed to tearfully concede.

"Roland Meyers was scared, too," Doron replied. "Even I could see it. But he had no one to come to his rescue, did he?"

"I tried to rescue him," my wife sniffed. "But he preferred death to accepting my help. There's a difference there."

"You resisted us, even me, just as strongly," Doron responded.

"But I would have reasoned with Roland, not stripped his mind away like you tried to with me," Kila countered. "That is an abuse of healing."

"We tried to reason with you, too, Kila," the First Elder responded.

Kila now broke down, sobbing. I just took her into my arms and held her tightly.

"Let's go," I gently encouraged. "This isn't helping anyone."

"I'm not Terrian anymore," she wept. "My people tried to kill me . . ."

"No, Kila," I said as I tried to comfort her. "That's not who they are."

"I-I want to be human, John," she sniffed, looking sadly at me.

"You're you, Kila," I assured holding her tightly again. "That's all I care about, okay?"

"I don't envy you your task here, John," Doron now said, floating up next to me.

"You could at least say you're sorry, sir," I replied, looking sharply at him.

"I acted in the best interests of our people, all our people," he simply replied. "I cannot be sorry for that. It gives me no pleasure, only sadness, to remember the course I chose. But it cannot be otherwise I'm afraid."

"You're breaking a Terrian's heart, and spirit," I cautioned.

"She chose to come and see me," he responded. "If you had allowed her treatment to be completed, and not given her the unfortunate memories back you chose to, she would know nothing but harmony now, instead of this suffering."

"I know love," my wife sniffed, looking at him as she continued to rest her head against my shoulder, " . . . love like I've never known before. This man loves me. I get scared, I run away, I hurt him . . . but he comes and rescues me anyway. He even gives me back myself, without reservation . . . even the self who had hurt him."

"Yes, he did," Doron now more gently agreed. "You have a remarkable mate. You are fortunate, Kila . . . very fortunate."

"I want to love," Kila wept against me, "not hate."

"Kila . . . I'm sorry for my part in what happened," Doron now said to my surprise. "I could have listened more, cared more . . . been more patient and understanding. In looking at it again now, you weren't talking publicly, or to anyone else, as I was fearing you might. I could have found John, brought him with me . . . helped both of you to find understanding and harmony again."

As I watched, my wife migrated from my arms and floated over to embrace Doron.

"Thank you," she tearfully whispered as they embraced. "That's all I wanted to hear."

"Harmony, real harmony, has to be given, not forced," I sniffed with a smile to them.

"Yes, it does," Doron slowly agreed. "Kila, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Just please don't allow healing to be misused on anyone else anymore . . . the way it was used on me," my wife pleaded.

"Would you help me with that?" Doron asked, now tearing up himself.

"Yes," my wife smiled. "Yes, I would . . . as the Terrian healer I am proud to be."

I welcomed Kila back into my arms now, savoring her as I held her. Even her wonderfully familiar energy was back in full.

— — — — —

That night, she called me her hero back at our quarters, and meant it, before giving me a chance to really prove it.

One minute we were laying down together in bed, drawing each other close, and beginning to share some delicious energy as she laid her bare arms around my neck and head . . . and the next thing I knew, it was a sunny afternoon, and we were both onboard a large Roman quinquereme, a naval oarship with multiple levels of oars and oarsmen arrayed along each side. I looked down as I stood on the ship's top deck in the sun, finding myself dressed in a Roman general's battle armour. I then looked to see Kila beside me, dressed in similar, but more sexy and revealing leather armour herself, with the barest hints of a female tunic underneath.

"Look! The enemy hoards board, Mark Antony, my love!" she now urged. "Fight!"

"Wait," I wondered, trying to come to grips with it all, still looking at her as a shipboard battle began raging in front of us, " . . . are you Cleopatra here?"

"Yes, my love," she quickly replied while deftly fending off the first of rival Roman General Agrippa's soldiers as they began attacking us. "But not now. Fight, my hero! Fight!"

"But Antony and Cleopatra never fought like this themselves," I noted, while nonetheless having to quickly subdue an attacking legionnaire myself now.

My Terrian Cleopatra then just turned to me with a sigh, still holding a sword in one hand at her side, looking just a little peeved at me now as she gripped me around my shoulders with her free arm, bringing me into a powerful and utterly seductive kiss, as she whispered, "Fight with me, please? You're my hero—and I want my hero . . . badly."

I just began smiling, still holding her with one arm as I looked into her hopeful eyes while I instinctively took the sword in my other hand, plunging it directly into the abdomen of a second soldier charging at me before he fell to the ship's deck with a groan and a thud.

"YAAAAAHH!" I now yelled as I turned and withdrew the sword before Kila and I charged headlong along the now crowded deck in among the enemy soldiers raiding the ship we were on. It was a bloody battle, a very bloody and seemingly harrowing battle . . . fought hand to hand for control of the ship, with swords clashing in all directions. Steel blades and spears came at me again and again. Amid it all though, my Kila was unstoppable.

"YEAH!" she exclaimed with almost lusty satisfaction as she finally dispatched the last of the enemy with her sword. Together, and unlike events had actually played out, we had achieved a win this time for Earth history's most famous couple. "Want to go to our villa?" she then invited breathing hard as she moved closer to me. "It's right over there, and I could use a good swim after all this!"

I could only laugh as she then just dove over the side of the ship, shedding her leather armour as she went. I soon followed, diving in after her and shedding my armour as well. When I surfaced, I found myself in our hot tub at our Roman country villa. Kila was already lounging at one side of the pool, looking wantonly at me and ever so slowly drawing a grape into her mouth. I just swam over, taking her into my arms and kissing her powerfully.

"My hero . . ." she whispered breathlessly.

"You know how corny that sounds?" I sighed, shaking my head with a smile.

"You are my hero, and you're gonna like it," she maintained, undeterred.

"Yes, m'am," I surrendered as we proceeded to love each other and merge together in ways we couldn't in real life, savouring a warm evening of unspeakable passion in the hot tub there.

It's another night I'm still recovering from . . . happily so.

— — — — —

"Morning, my love, it's moving day," Kila greeted me some days later with a kiss, as well as some nicely tuned energy that was more reviving than the best cup of coffee I had ever known.

"Well, you're ready to go, aren't you?" I noted as I opened my eyes, seeing she was already dressed in the blue customized human bib overalls and red work shirt I had given her a while back, as well as wearing her compact breathing apparatus around her head and neck as always now.

"I just can't wait to enjoy us . . . in that house," she smiled.

"You know," I sighed as I sat up in bed and stretched, looking out the window near the foot of our bed into the Elder Complex hangar this final morning, "I think I'm gonna miss this room."

"Oh no you're not," my wife assured with an air of beguiling mystery that served to draw me out of bed and get me going better than any other form of motivation I had ever known. Now I just had to see what she had been up to behind my back.

— — — — —

After repeatedly trying to have ourselves placed in the random drawing which determined the order in which human families, couples, and individuals got to choose the homes they would live in within the habitat, Kila and I reluctantly accepted the gift of a two-storey rounded clay house from not only the Earth Council itself, but at the Eldership's insistence as well. That we were being practically applauded routinely together once word of our misunderstanding and my rescue of her got out was embarrassing enough, but the house was just what Kila and I had been hoping for, being near the center of the habitat, and getting good, warming sun through most of the year.

"Take it," Chen quietly told Kila and I after we had been formally presented with the house during a Council session as other councilors applauded around us. "Both of you have earned it."

But Kila, as always, soon had her own ideas.

"Sorry, you can't see inside. Not until moving day tomorrow," my wife said as she blocked me from entering the house as we later visited it together on the eve before our move, "and you can't see around back either, okay?"

"Kila," I sighed.

"Would you let it be my gift of gratitude and love?" she asked. "Especially for what you've done for me?"

I just smiled as I hugged her. "How could I refuse that?" I now happily surrendered.

"I love you," she softly said.

"I know," I sniffed, "and ohh do I love you."

— — — — —

Now though, the big day had come. Thanks to Kila, we had made so many friends that moving from our Earth column quarters into our new house in the habitat just wasn't a problem. We even had the luxury of offering Mike and Sharon helpers with their move.

Hundreds of humans were all moving out of the Earth columns in the Elder Complex en masse, using everything from elder patrol ships to even walking with their own boxes briefly through the snow, coming into a very festive habitat and new human community now. Not every building was finished though, plus the trees and other Earth plants—which our botanical team had been carefully growing from cryogenically frozen seeds brought on the Ark—were still just taking root around the habitat. I was amazed however at how the team that Kaila had once supervised had been able to accelerate the growth on the trees. Some of them were already four metres tall.

I relished the experience of walking along an actual tree-lined street in the sunshine though, as Kila and I carried the first boxes to our new home.

"Awww, Kila . . ." I then sighed with basically chagrined gratitude as I walked through our new house to the kitchen for the first time carrying the boxes, and looked through our doorway out the back. "You went and had the hot tub brought here."

"Surprise," she smiled next to me, setting her box down on the kitchen counter as we both looked at the tub, now set up in what was our back yard. "The elders didn't know what to do with it after our honeymoon. Like me, they could only float on top of it, and couldn't really see its purpose. Besides, we already have several new neighbors who really want to drop over and break it in with us."

"Wait, the bedroom," I then wondered.

"Go upstairs and have a look," she invited warmly.

I put down the boxes I was carrying and dashed up the first set of real stairs I had ever climbed. I then turned the corner into our master bedroom, and there it was . . . that massive oval bed from our honeymoon suite as well that we didn't have a prayer of fitting into the bedroom of our previous quarters.

"You gotta stop with these surprises," I sighed with utter delight.

"Well, these are recycled surprises," she excused, floating up next to me as we extended an arm around each other. "So I'm not really surprising you all that much."

"Yes you are," I disagreed with a smile on my face.

"It's just part of my 'I owe you' . . . for rescuing me," she said quietly.

"Kila," I said with a tear in my eye as I now turned and held her tightly.

She just gave me a quiet, grateful kiss.

"I would rescue you any way, any day," I assured her.

"I know," she whispered to me. "But, are you still gonna miss our old bedroom in the complex?" she then asked, lightening the mood between us.

"The view out the big window across from the foot of this bed here?" I sighed, taking a glance. "I won't want to get out of bed in the mornings."

"So snow and clouds aren't so bad, huh?" she quipped, turning to enjoy the view with me.

"No," I laughed. "It's the sunny square and the rest of the town in front of that. We engineered the translucent habitat walls to keep the low-level clouds and snow out."

"You won't miss vacationing in my old tower home that we've given to that other Terrian-human couple now either?" she wondered as well.

"This is pretty good," I sighed, turning and embracing her.

"Come on," she invited. "We have an old-fashioned hot tub party to get ready to host. I've been studying up on your Earth records of that. Plus, I got a really nice new bodysuit for the occasion, too."

"Stop it," I smiled. "You're killing me here."

"Make me," she playfully challenged as she escaped out of my arms and floated back down the stairs as I chased after her.

— — — — —

If Kila hadn't already become popular among the human community before, that hot tub, the only one in town at the moment, pretty much sealed the deal that afternoon. My wife and I were each dressed in new swimwear and ready to go for a dip. Kila's revealing one-piece blue swimsuit that she was now wearing was incredible. Basically shaped something like two upright 'Y's' on top of each other—one was stretched across her torso, and the other around her fairly flat and long, spade-shaped tail. It accentuated everything she had, and more; baring not only her neckline and the sides of her slender waist, but even the sides of her tail, with just a thin strip of fabric running down the centre and flaring out a little at the bottom, covering what it needed to. It all made her look incredibly hot to me, even scorching. Neither Terrian, nor even human, males could help but admire her in it as well. Females of both species seemed to be taking mental notes, too.

But even with her wearing what she was, Kila and I didn't have a prayer of getting into the hot tub ourselves that day. Even Mike and Sharon had to just help us run the catering.

Kila had also arranged for Terrian musicians and aerial dancers in long, flowing banner-like robes to drop in for what soon became a vibrant community celebration. I had even ordered up a brief fly-by of an Earth Force Plus-wing and a Terrian fighter together side-by-side within the habitat as well. It was that big, and had its own airlocks straight to the sky. I never ceased to marvel at the symbolism and harmony of those two craft flying together now. It was almost an aerial representation of Kila and I.

But the most amazing thing was seeing Terrians and humans, both lounging in the hot tub and just talking with each other around our home and the surrounding yard in the sunshine. A few other human-Terrian couples were even kissing.

"Have a hot dog," my wife said as she came up beside me with a plate of them.

"These don't quite look like Earth hot dogs . . . even the synthetic ones we've been used to in space," I noted, picking one up and looking at what essentially was green meat in a grey bun.

"They're a new blend of forgon, compressed with dried grondor, along with some other plants," she replied. "You especially should enjoy some of the seasonings that have been discovered and added in as well. Just came out of the joint lab and test kitchen yesterday. Try it."

"Wow," I admired taking a bite. "Even your local kind of bun makes this taste good. I'll have to try these with my plantburgers."

"Uh huh," my wife agreed as she now took a bite of one herself beside me. "See? We're really enjoying the same foods now. But no grilling or cooking for you today, mister. You are all mine, okay?"

"Yes m'am!" I saluted with a smile.

"Just call me Kila," she asked with her own smile as she drew close to me.

"Kila . . . you're incredible," I admired, putting an arm warmly around her as I finished my hot dog.

"We're incredible together," she replied, giving me a kiss in between bites of her own hot dog, thanks to the freedom her nostril breathing tubes and headband gave her.

"I am so grateful," I sniffed, finding my eyes were tearing up all on their own, " . . . for this marriage of ours."

Kila just passed the plate of hot dogs to a surprised human couple as they passed next to us, before throwing her arms around my neck and surging some really grateful energy of her own into me. I just held her all the tighter as I broke out in a sudden sweat far worse than the hottest Firehouse Chili had ever given me.

"Wowee!" I admired as I hugged and rocked her tightly.

My mate could only smile and kiss me again. "It's working," she finally said. "It's all working."

"Yep," I sighed to her. "Nothing can go wrong now."


	10. Chapter 10

"Come on, keep up! I'm the one having to do this on the ground the hard way," I challenged as I eagerly climbed a mountain while Kila surprisingly lagged behind. It was a couple months later now as we were both finally able to get away to experience something that ancient Earth records had called a 'vacation' . . . a real one, and something humans just hadn't been doing on the Ark.

"The air's thinner up here," my wife excused, breathing hard without a respirator several metres away as she fought some intermittent side wind gusts that were sweeping across the face of the mountain. "Plus I'm not used to traveling this far or climbing this high on just my own tail. Why did you say we are climbing like this, instead of flying up here in even the most basic craft?"

"It's called 'hiking' or 'mountaineering'," I smiled as I looked for the next safe hand and foot holds among the rock outcroppings in front of me, then reaching for one with a gloved hand. "Humans used to do it back on Earth. It's another thing I read about, and always wanted to try. Plus, to be out here in these wide open spaces, with no walls or anything surrounding us . . . isn't it incredible?"

"You're more Terrian than I am now, the way you love this place," she remarked as she finally caught up, now floating near me in the air as the winds diminished around us, and wearing the purple human windbreaker parka I had arranged to have custom-made for her.

— — — — —

My kind hadn't needed such jackets since we had left Earth several generations ago, but when I saw a picture of a woman wearing one when I had looked up 'vacation' on my electronic pad one night while Kila was brushing her teeth, or rather her chewing plates, after we had shared another lasagna . . . well, I decided I just had to surprise her with it as I surreptitiously typed a message to her two women tailors before turning the pad off and just focusing on Kila, beautiful as always in her nightdress, as she floated out of our bathroom.

"What is it?" she began to wonder, looking at me as she slipped into the nice large, oval bed I was still treasuring in our new home.

"Just you," I replied with a smile and an absolutely focused mind. It was about her, after all.

Meeting with her tailors alone the next day and ordering her parka in a deep purple that matched her eyes, as well as one for me in a dark green, I then managed to surprise Kila with it just as we were leaving our home a week later for our first day out in the Terrian wilderness, using more of my disciplined mind tricks.

"Are you sure you don't want us to just take our own cloud-sailer?" she asked as we both picked up our backpacks in preparation for heading out the door for a shuttle ride into the wilderness. We were both dressed for hiking, wearing old-fashioned jeans—hers with just a single 'leg' covering her tail—and casual buttoned shirts, mine blue, hers red. She was wearing her old respirator mask for the moment, but would soon be shedding it.

"What is it?" she said as she caught me just staring at her.

"So many things," I sighed. "You dressed like that . . . going on this trip with me."

Kila took my hand, smiling as she experienced my appreciation of her and what she was doing here for me in full. "John, I'm happy to do this with you, because I know how much it means to you."

"We can cancel the shuttle ride if you want," I offered in pleasant surrender. "Take a cloud-sailer by ourselves instead."

"Nah," she smiled. "You're right. Why back-track over the same terrain again to a vehicle we left behind, when we can easily see twice as much going just one direction and get picked up at the other end?"

"If we run into any problems we have commlinks for each of us," I added, now holding her in my arms, "and help would be just minutes away. You know first aid now, and I have three respirators and plenty of air packs."

"You are out to make this so-called 'vacation' an adventure, aren't you?" she smiled as she raised her mask and kissed me.

"Whoops, forgot a snack," I noted, using a glance at the refrigerator as a pre-planned mental cue as I dropped my backpack for the moment on our way to the front door.

"Why are you heading for your study if you want a snack?" my wife asked me.

"'Cause I left it in there," I replied, thankful that I had an actual old-fashioned home office and study in this house, and at least one closet in there that my wife never went into . . . at least up until now. "But it wasn't a snack," I then said, bringing the purple jacket back out. "This is for you, Kila . . . because I love you."

"John . . ." she could only say, breaking down in tears of utter joy as she embraced me. I even teared up with her as I smiled and helped her put it on for the first time, before I went and got mine as well.

When I came back into the front hall putting my windbreaker on, she was admiring her parka on herself, before looking at me.

"Now we're ready to go," I gently smiled.

Kila just rushed into my arms, holding me more tightly than ever, while surging her 'electric gratitude', as I came to think of it, through her hands and head to me pretty good, too.

Her jacket quickly became a favorite between both of us though. She loved it because it kept her warm, and I loved her in it because for some reason it just said, "wife, partner," to me in a powerful way. It even made her look more human. As soon as she picked that up in a touch with me, she told me she just wasn't taking it off, although I finally managed to convince her to shed it once we were in our one sleeping bag together inside our small tent the first night. Turned inside out, our parkas even made nice pillows.

— — — — —

But for the past three days, I had been in nothing other than Terrian air here, completely dependent on my respirator for every breath I took and hundreds of kilometres from the rest of humanity and any alternate source of oxygen. It felt great!

I now paused from my climbing as I finally stood on a narrow mountainside ledge, thinking for a moment. That first day I had thought of Kila as human, and now she had just called me Terrian.

"Kila . . ." I sighed in appreciation, turning to her, "that's the most beautiful compliment you've ever given me. Thank you."

"Well, I owe you for the romantic fireside massage you gave me last night . . . and for this still, too," she replied, gesturing at the windbreaker she was wearing as she continued to breathe hard while I took her into my arms. "Just don't fall, though," she requested. "I don't think I'd have the strength now to catch and fly you to safety. But your airpack is flashing that it's low."

"I have a spare, several of them," I assured behind my air piece, tapping the daypack on my back. "You know me."

"Yes I do," she confirmed, looking at me. "Always prepared."

"You're tired though," I noted.

"What ever gave you that idea?" Kila sighed with a smile.

"This is enough climbing for today," I relented with a chuckle. "Besides, I have the best sight in front of me, right here, that I could ever ask for."

"Awww, John . . ." she smiled even bigger.

"You're a real sport, a real friend, coming up here with me like this," I admired as I held her. "Thank you."

"Happy to do it, husband. But shall we get back down to base camp?" Kila suggested. "Got some good food, and some nice, spicy voltage, just waiting for you down there."

"Ohhh . . . don't even get me started," I sighed. "That'll make me jump for sure," I said as I let go of her and then did just that, bounding right off the ledge.

"John!" she cried out in alarm, starting to dive after me as I sailed out into the open air, angling myself away from the mountain cliffs.

"Get close or stay clear!" I yelled to her.

"You're too heavy!" she yelled back as I now felt her grab onto me from behind and pull hard. "I can't stop you falling!"

"Get around front here!" I urged, almost pulling her around my side. "Hang on!" I then said as I hit a button on my chest.

A whoosh of thin fabric then erupted from the top of my customized daypack. Kila just screamed in my arms as I held her tightly.

"Surprise," I said almost with guilt as we now floated together under a parasail, while I grabbed the control handles on the two cords.

"John . . ." she sniffed, almost seeming traumatized.

"What? You didn't know I was going to do that?" I replied casually as she held me tightly around the shoulders.

"We're both wearing jackets, and our hands are gloved!" she replied with some irritation. "Yes, I was totally surprised here! Even freaked out! I had no idea you even brought this thing with you. Don't do this to me again, okay?"

"Kila, I'm sorry," I now apologized as I parasailed us both gently downward back towards our camp on a ridge just above the surface cloud layer.

"You're getting good at blocking things out of your mind . . . too good," she noted. "I was wondering why you were thinking about pizza and hot dogs while we were kissing at the start of this climb. I was even more puzzled when I offered you those things, but you said you weren't hungry and let's go."

"I wanted to give you the thrill of something unexpected with me," I replied as I smoothly worked the handles, thanks to hours of training in a simulator apart from Kila that I had previously willed myself to forget about as well. "I don't want to get boring and predictable to you," I added.

"John, you'll never be that to me . . . no matter how well I read or know you, I promise," my wife sighed, beginning to relax as she held me. "Just don't scare me like this again, okay?"

"I promise," I replied.

Kila now began gently smiling as we continued sailing through the air.

"What is it?" I asked with my own smile while I began steering us in lazy circles, even a figure eight, as we slowly spiraled downward.

"It all was kind of a rush here," she sheepishly admitted. "Kind of like the horror stuff in a way. I was genuinely scared for you for a moment, but part of me knew you just couldn't be suicidal like that, not when you've been so happy as you have on this vacation . . . Okay, I take it back," my wife decided. "Just be you, alright? I'll trust whatever crazy stunts you wind up pulling, or even bizarre ideas you think. But mister, whenever you think about food, I'll be on to you."

"Then I'll randomize it," I replied with a smile. "One day it will be legit, another a dodge. One day food, the next my computer pad. I can stay one step ahead of you, lady. Plus, you want me to . . . admit it."

"Well . . ." she hesitated, "first the jacket, and now flying with you through the air like this with nothing underneath us like a Terrian? Okay, it's romantic . . . incredibly romantic."

"I love you, Kila," I simply said as my feet finally touched down at our camp.

"And gods do I love you, John," she sighed as she hugged me and we kissed deeply while the parasail gently fell over the two of us.

— — — — —

Before long, the sun was setting and we were relaxing together in a hammock-like camp chair by our tent next to an open campfire, with Kila sitting across my lap.

"Wow!" I exclaimed as I drew back after taking a sip from the cup she was offering me. "That has gotta be the strongest nifron you've had me try yet!"

"I'm just getting you in the mood," she smiled.

"I am really in trouble then," I laughed as she hit my collar button, raising my air piece for me.

"You are sooo in trouble," she seductively agreed, beginning to kiss and give me gentle jolts as she ran her fingers through my hair and around my head and neck. I just took another deep breath before dropping my air piece again as I then proceeded to lay down a line of kisses along the side of her face and down her neck, with my right hand sensuously massaging the back of her neck and head underneath her cranial tail, while I somehow managed to continue roasting hot dogs for each of us over our campfire on a stick using my left hand.

I soon found my urge to breathe again becoming even more overpowering than our passions though, so I was forced to break off my line of kisses on Kila just as I was reaching the base of her neck.

"John," she warmly said as she continued to kiss the side of my forehead, "don't suffocate yourself to pleasure me. I love, even savor, anything you're able to comfortably do for me in this air. I really do."

"I know," I replied, looking at her while taking a couple of deep, restoring breaths behind my air piece. "There are times though when I just wish we could really breathe the same air. I have to keep reminding myself not to even exhale into your mouth as we kiss for fear of poisoning you. As much as I love you, Kila . . . there's still this curtain between us."

"It's our curtain though, John," she quietly replied, looking into my eyes as she continued to caress the back of my head. "And I'm not letting it stop us."

I just dropped my air piece once more as I moved to kiss my wife deeply while I gripped the back of her head again, holding my breath and not letting air in or out while I sensed Kila allowing herself to breathe deeply through her forehead nostrils. She gave me a couple light finishing kisses on my lips before hitting the button on my collar and raising my air piece for me again.

Kila then smiled at me as I took my breaths. "No aching regrets or longing, okay?" she said, reading my thoughts. "We chose this . . . and I love it, and you."

"I do, too," I sniffed now with a tear or two in my eyes as she now slid down a little and snuggled close against me while we both gazed at the fire and I turned the hot dogs in it to now roast their other sides.

"Things take a while to cook in Terrian air, don't they?" I noted.

"What's your hurry?" she quipped, looking up at me. "You humans live life a little too fast sometimes. Why not enjoy it all at a slower, Terrian pace?"

"You're right," I sighed, just relaxing more myself as I rested my cheek and jaw against the side of her head, allowing a moment or two to now gently pass between us in peaceful silence.

"You know we have to go back tomorrow," Kila finally sighed, continuing to rest curled up against me as we watched the hot dogs roast and listened to the fire gently crackle. "You'll be out of oxygen."

"I know," I assured my wife as I briefly dropped my air piece and we shared a passionate kiss again, with a few new twists . . . physical this time. "Mmmmm . . ." I sighed with pleasure as she gently broke it off and raised my air piece for me. "You're learning to French kiss."

"I am," she smiled. "Hope you don't mind me learning from your memories some more here."

"I don't mind, Kila," I gently assured as I dropped my air piece again, then French kissing her some more myself while she reached a hand up behind my neck and began to appreciatively flow a more powerful energy my way now.

"Whoa. I thought we were having 'dessert' after dinner here," I smiled, ending the kiss as I looked at her, with Kila causing my air piece to pop up this time to give me a breath.

"We're on what you're calling 'vacation'," she smiled back, turning up the voltage a bit more on my neck. "I just thought why not mix things up a little tonight."

"We'll burn the hot dogs," I cautioned as I began to struggle a little to maintain control of my body.

"I'll feed you your hot dog myself, mister," she now predatorily suggested as she just zapped me, causing me to fall out of our chair onto the ground.

"You enjoy making me convulse and immobilizing me with pleasure, don't you?" I queried as I just managed to rescue our hot dogs from the fire with an outstretched hand holding the stick they were both on.

"Ohh yeah," she agreed, as she now laid both her hands against the sides of my head and fed me exquisitely paralyzing energy right to my brain as she laid a passionate kiss on my forehead above my respirator, pouring even more energy into me even through her lips.

I allowed the two hot dogs to fall into the fire at that point. I just no longer cared.

— — — — —

"Keep me warm," she requested later as we lay bare together in our one shared sleeping bag, under the open sky by the fire this final night instead of inside our tent.

"Turn and look at the stars with me," I invited as she then shifted and I continued to hold her close beside me. By now, Kila and I had learned to tuck the cranial tail at the back of her head over and around my shoulder when we lay like this, so that the rest of her head could comfortably lie against my shoulder and she could look up where I was. I was even enjoying this part of her now. It was simply a flesh-colored ponytail to me.

"I've been seeing the stars like this my whole life, both day and night," I continued as we looked up into the sky together. "To finally see them disappear behind a blue sky during the day, and then come out one by one as the sun sets . . . it's heaven, Kila. Just heaven. And you know what that makes you . . ."

"Your angel," she smiled, as we turned our faces toward each other. "I'm kind of preferring being your electric eel though. That's more fun," she added, surging some more of her energy towards me once more.

I just dropped the respirator from in front of my face for a moment as I began nuzzling and kissing the side of her head and neck again while she looked skyward again.

"John," she asked, "what's that?"

"What's what?" I responded, still focused on her, but finding myself increasingly in need of a breath once more from my air piece.

"That," she said now pointing with a bare arm out from within our sleeping bag, " . . . in front of the lower of the two full moons."

I now looked up, following where her finger pointed amid the heavens as I repositioned my respirator and took a breath. My eyes settled on the brightly-illuminated moon she was gesturing towards, as a small dark mass moved slowly in front of it . . . a small, dark, splintered, oval mass.

"Oh my God," I said quietly in shock, now bolting out of the sleeping bag and hurriedly fumbling in my daypack nearby inside our tent.

"John, what is it?" Kila now asked as she sat up as well, turning to look at me.

"My worst nightmare, Kila," I replied with deadly seriousness. "My absolute worst nightmare. Elder Control, Elder Control, this is Commander Meyers," I said into my commlink in English, forgetting the Terrian language protocol.

"Elder Control, what is it, John?" the reply came back.

"The Ark is within the inner lunar orbit now," I urgently said. "I've just spotted it. Set Alert Condition Prime, and send a Plus-Wing shuttle for me. I'm on the southwest ridge of Ornock Mountain, key in on my commlink for exact coordinates. I need to go up to the Ark to have a look, now. I'll be available via this commlink as needed."

"Plus-Wing being dispatched to you, leaders being alerted," the response came back. "Control out."

"John, what's going on?" my wife now asked with growing fear as she emerged from our sleeping bag now as well.

"Touch me," I invited, looking back into the sky. "It'll take less time," which she proceeded to do.

"Oh no . . ." Kila responded almost the instant she laid a hand on my arm.

"Yep," I sighed, looking up again, "that cursed wreck is falling out of its distant orbit, and the alarm I rigged failed to alert us."

"John, I'm going with you," she said. "With all the debris and the dangers up there . . ."

"Kila, it's just a recon," I assured. "I'm just going to take a look, nothing more."

She just kept looking at me, almost tearfully.

Now, I found myself being able to read and understand Kila. "You're not going to be left behind to just wait again, are you?" I surmised.

She would only shake her head no, slowly, as she shivered bare in the night air.

"Well, partner," I smiled. "We'd better get dressed then."

Kila practically zoomed over to hug me, causing me to fall over backwards with her in my arms. "There goes that energy again," my voice quivered as the rest of me convulsed. I held her tightly anyway.

— — — — —

We managed to get ourselves dressed just in time before a Plus-wing fighter soared into view, pivoted, and then touched down on the ridge near us, practically blowing our campsite asunder with the downward thrust from its engines.

"Mike, Stewart . . . and Izumi," I noted, seeing them as the fighter's cockpit rotated and opened for me to board. "Well, the whole team's back together again, a full load. But my wife's coming, too," I decided anyway. "She doesn't take up much space. Here, Kila, let's just strap you right in front of me again. We should have a Med Tech on this flight anyway . . . Earth Force regulations."

"Regs that we haven't been observing since the Med 'Bots took over more than a hundred years ago," Mike noted with a raised eyebrow as I hiked up the inclined deck around our pilot with Kila following close behind, while the cockpit visor closed behind us.

"You have too much faith in those machines," Kila shot back as I fastened our restraints.

"Well, you are flying in a machine," our friend countered while the cockpit rotated up into flight position around us.

"We're in, Stewart," I assured with Kila now secured in front of me under our standing harnesses. "Hit it!"

Our pilot now shoved his control sticks forward as our craft blasted off into the sky. I knew our campsite was now truly toast, but oh well.

"Switching to Earth atmosphere," our pilot noted as Mike and the rest of us deactivated our respirators while Kila donned her mask and activated hers.

_It is so good going into space with you. It's another thing I've always wanted us to do together,_ I silently thought to my mate as I wrapped my arms around her, intertwining my fingers with hers. She just brushed the side of her head against my stubbled chin as her eyes closed in gratitude and she took a sigh under her old respirator mask. _And I am going to name you as Med Tech for this mission, and whenever I go into space, _I added._ Commander's discretion. I don't trust those robots either._

Kila just looked up at me with the most mischievous smile in her eyes. It was a good thing she was wearing that old mask of hers to hide her grin.

"Nice jacket by the way, Kila," Mike admired next to us in seeming conciliation now as he glanced at her in it.

"John surprised me with it at the start of our vacation here," she smiled beneath her mask.

"Once she sees you in it, I just know Sharon will want one, too," he quipped in reply.

"I'll set you up with Kila's tailors," I assured as I glanced with a smile at my now very appreciative wife. "It'll be our secret."

"You're a lifesaver, boss," my friend sighed gratefully.

"Computer, engage cockpit shield," our pilot, Stewart, now interrupted with an order to the fighter's computer as a green force field grid now covered the windows in front of us.

"Are we getting any transmissions from the Ark bridge as we should be?" I asked.

"Nothing, sir," Stewart replied, both listening in his earpiece and calling up comm status holo-displays in front of him.

"Do a fly-round of the entire ship," I directed. "Slow off the bridge, and blast any junk you need to."

"Yes sir," the pilot accepted as our objective now loomed darkly in front of us as we approached it. "Altering course."

"God, it's a wreck," Mike sighed next to me as we started to get a good look at the Ark. "Whole ring segments are detached, and the debris field around the ship is much worse than when we left it."

"Coming around to the bridge area now, sir," Stewart reported as he slowed our craft and we continued looking out the fighter's tall windows.

"It's just completely destroyed," I almost gasped in shock, seeing a large section of the front of the Ark smashed.

"Must have been a large meteor impact," Mike noted. "Should have left power on for what shielding it had I guess."

"We should have destroyed this ship or sent it somewhere really out of harm's way around another planet when we had the chance. Now it's gonna be a lot more difficult," I sighed as we completed our survey around the now dead and shattered hulk of our former home.

Kila just looked up at me, slowly shaking her head at what I was starting to think. I didn't even try to hide my thoughts from my wife this time as we both gripped each other's hands more tightly in front of her.

— — — — —

"The Ark is on a collision trajectory with this planet," I reported less than an hour later to the first ever joint session of the Earth Council and Terrian Eldership at the Elder Complex, still in my hiking clothes and windbreaker, and breathing with a respirator while a utility robot projected holographic illustrations of the Ark spiraling towards Terra behind me. "The latest projections by both Earth Force and Elder Control calculate impact within seven hours from now, and have plotted the debris zone to cover this complex, the Earth habitat, and the three nearest Terrian cities. And that doesn't include the fallout and other effects from a mass that large striking the planet, which would be equivalent to a small asteroid, not to mention the spread of lethal radiation from the break-up of the main and auxiliary reactors."

"What are our options, Commander?" President Chen asked behind a respirator as well, getting right to the point.

"There are two options, but I feel only one is acceptable," I replied. "We could try to restart the ship's engines, but just three of the four worked during our last orbital maneuver. Restarting the main reactors and doing systems checks would take too long by themselves, but the worst part is, the ship is now so broken up, we would be leaving too much debris behind, even spreading it around some. Much of that debris would remain to impact on the planet. There is no way to round it all up and tow it away with the ship.

"So that leads to my preferred alternative," I continued as the computer animations kept running behind me, " . . . rigging the ship's main reactors for thermonuclear detonation. While it will be extremely hazardous for the mission personnel involved to reach the ship, rig the reactors, and then depart; with the bridge smashed, there is no way now to remotely relay instructions to do it at a safe distance from the Ark. Plus there are safety preventer rods around each main reactor that would need to be manually pulled by robots or humans anyway. This could be done much faster by humans though. Blowing up those mains wasn't meant to be easy. But if successful, a thermonuclear explosion will vaporize both the ship, and most all the nearby surrounding debris. We have almost five hours until the Ark is close enough to where such an explosion would pose any direct risks to the planet, and seven hours before impact as I noted earlier."

"I'm sure we don't need to take a vote on this one," Chen noted as he looked beside him at Doron and around at the assembled human councilors and Terrian elders as they all nodded towards him.

"This is your ship," Doron concurred. "You know far better how to deal with it than we do. Just protect both our peoples."

"Proceed, Commander," Chen then directed. "Select your team and go."

"I'm taking charge of this mission personally, sir," I assured, saluting him. "Ark Teams," I then said into my commlink as my voice now echoed throughout the complex, "we are go in thirty minutes. Repeat Ark Teams go in thirty minutes."

I put my commlink back into the belt under my parka as I then noticed Kila, still in her hiking clothes as well, tearfully looking at me and shaking her head.

"I'm not going to do to you what was done to either of us in the past," I assured, taking her hand in mine as her face now brightened at what I was thinking to her. "I meant what I said. We're together on this one, Med Tech . . . no matter what."

Kila surged with tearful gratitude into my arms.

"I just can't leave you behind," I sniffed, quivering a little at her grateful voltage again. "Let's get you suited up, quick."

"Perhaps I could go tucked in front of you inside your space suit," she then suggested as we left the council chamber together. "It'd be a really snug fit."

"You and I might enjoy that," I smiled. "But it would look just a little weird to everyone else on the mission. Besides, you might actually have your own rescue work to do."

"I just want to be kept warm," she smiled as well. "I won't even be able to sense your thoughts while we're suited up however."

"There is more than one comm channel in those suits," I winked. "We'll just have our own private channel as well."

"John," she then said, stopping me in a hallway of the Elder Complex as humans and Terrians rushed around us, " . . . I haven't had near enough time with you yet."

"I know," I replied, taking her into my embrace. "That's why you're coming . . . to make sure we both come back to have more time together, way more time. I'm not done with you either, lady. Nowhere near."

Kila just moved to hold me tightly, dropping my air piece and kissing me hard, while also clasping her hands around my head and neck and giving me a powerful surge of her voltage. It was all I could do to just lean against the wall next to us to prevent us both from falling down on the floor.

Part of me hoped we would be excused as newlyweds by others passing beside us . . . but most of me just didn't care.


	11. Chapter 11

Soon, a total of four Plus-wing fighters were ready to convey our mission teams to the Ark, as every other Earth Force and Terrian fighter was being readied to intercept and shoot down debris approaching the planet or entering its atmosphere as needed.

I ended up having to carry Kila in my arms once she was inside her doctored-up, teal-colored human space suit, as it proved to be too heavy in Terrian gravity for her to float normally in. As we didn't have time to tailor a customized suit for her, I just ordered one leg cut off at the hip of the smallest suit we had with the opening fused shut, with the other leg of it cut off below the knee to accommodate her tail and fused closed as well. Kila just had to wear the suit's arms bunched up so her hands could reach into its gloves, and we hastily attached a Terrian air pack and breathing apparatus to it, all while I had a technician quickly reprogram the suit's small onboard computer to account for these changes. My wife was a good sport though, just floating there in the room while the rest of us, even me, worked furiously as we basically assembled the suit around her, all within twenty-five minutes.

Now though I was dashing across the hangar wearing my own space suit and open helmet with my breathing apparatus on, while cradling Kila and her first aid shoulder bag, as both of us made it to our fighter just in time ahead of my departure target.

"You two must really like space trips together," Mike sighed behind his air piece, shaking his head as I boarded our craft with Kila and proceeded to strap her and I into the same standing restraint together again. I then just decided to brace Kila's medical bag between my feet, while Mike and Izumi strapped themselves in as well.

"Mike," Kila replied, "I'm the only living and breathing trained field medical professional you humans have now. Robots can't patch you humans up out there amid all that flying shrapnel like I can, especially while in space suits. Plus," she then said looking at me, "with what happened to each of us in losing our mates, I think John and I have earned the right to go on this mission together. Besides, this is my world, too."

"I've learned not to argue with her," I shrugged with a smile as our pilot fired up our engines and closed our cockpit visor. "Okay, Stewart," I then said. "Let's ride."

"Yes sir!" the pilot said. "_Elder Control, Terra One requesting clearance for departure_," our pilot radioed in Terrian as the cockpit once again rotated us upward into flight position.

"Terras One through Four cleared for departure," the cockpit's loudspeaker announced.

Stewart then pushed his control sticks forward, causing us to rocket upwards through a hole to the planet surface above us. "_Elder Control, Terra One now airborne_," he followed up.

"We show Terra Units One through Four now airborne and en route. Good luck," we heard on the cockpit's loudspeaker as the pink and blue skies of morning now faded into the perpetual blackness of space in front of us.

"Switching to Earth atmosphere," our pilot noted as we four humans went through the now familiar routine of dropping our respirators while Kila once again started using hers.

"One of these days, we should add Terrian air systems to these craft," I sighed. "Sorry, Kila."

"Hey, Earth Force craft, Earth atmosphere. No problem," she assured through her mask.

"Nice touch though," Mike admitted, "naming our craft for this mission in honor of the planet we protect now."

"We're all in this together," I replied. "Stewart, patch me through to the other Terras for the mission pep talk," I then instructed.

"You're on, sir," our pilot replied.

"Terras Two through Four," I now said, "you each know your objectives. Terra Two will try and open the Docking Bay on J Ring if they can. If they can't, then we'll each make our way through the debris to airlocks near our assigned reactors, or other openings if the opportunity presents itself. I remind you safety is paramount. It does us no good if you get injured or killed before reaching your objective. Report any injuries to Med Tech Kila, and we will get her to you as quickly as possible. As to remaining safe after reaching your objectives . . . I'd rather celebrate with friends, than honour and remember heroes, okay?

"We've got just three hours now to get this job done," I concluded. "So let's do it carefully, but deliberately. We have no second chances now to get this right. Good luck, and we'll see you all for a hot tub party after this at our house, alright? Meyers out."

"Stewart," I then said, "patch me through to Elder Control."

"You're on, sir," he replied again.

"_Elder Control, this is Meyers,"_ I said, remembering to use Terrian this time, but also using my last name, as there was more than one John in Earth Force, even on this mission.

"Elder Control, go ahead, John," they replied anyway.

"_We are approaching the edge of the Ark's debris field,"_ I replied. _"We will be occupied with priming the Ark itself, so interception of any debris that endangers the planet is under your operational command as of this moment, as are all Earth Force assets not engaged in this mission."_

"We understand, John," I heard Doron reply himself over the comm. "We are launching the first wave of Earth Force fighters now into a protective orbit around the planet, as well as deploying our own warships underneath them in the atmosphere. We will be ready."

"_Once we have signaled, or you have confirming telemetry, that the Ark is primed,"_ I continued, _"just ensure our forces are clear of any blast zone."_

"We will, John," Doron commed back. "You have my word, we will protect your people, too."

"_That's all I ask,"_ I said more quietly in Terrian, wishing I could make the same pledge to my own teams on this mission. _"Good luck, Doron. John out."_

"Take care, all of you," the reply came back as Kila turned her head and looked with knowing concern at me. "Doron out."

"Approaching the Ark, sir," Stewart now reported as the three other fighters in our mission force came into sight on either side of us. "Computer, activate cockpit shield," he added, instructing our fighter's computer.

The dark, splintered mass of the Ark now began to fill the shielded cockpit windows in front of us, amid a jumbled morass of its debris that was spinning in random directions and orbits around it. I was glad I wasn't touching Kila directly at the moment . . . she just didn't need to be sharing my inner fears here, even though she seemed to be anyway just by looking at me.

"Terra Two, proceed," I commed again, as that craft now moved forward into the Ark's debris field.

"The debris is really thick already, sir," the fighter radioed as it almost disappeared amid the dark and randomly flying pieces of metal ahead of us. "Receiving significant impacts." We could even hear chunks of metal banging against their shielded ship over the comm. "Attempting to trigger remote opening of bay doors." There was static as we waited. "Trying again," came the call. "Datalinks report inadequate power on the Ark. The batteries appear to be exhausted."

"Terras Two, Three and Four, deploy near your assigned reactor spaces and find an alternate way inside. We will do the same. It's just unfortunate they put all the airlocks around the rings, while clustering the reactors and engines around the central hub," I commed. "Feel your way in, Stewart," I then directed our pilot. "Helmets closed everyone, in case we hit something hard."

Kila pulled the Terrian mouthpiece she was breathing through off and strained from inside her helmet to give me a last kiss. With a smile, I met her halfway.

_Be safe,_ I thought to her. _And remember, I'm not nearly done with you yet. I love you, Kila._

"I love you, too, John," she whispered as we finished our kiss. "And ditto on everything else." Both our segmented visors then closed over our faces. I could just see her face through her visor's mirrored surface, her large eyes still looking at me. Suddenly I felt so isolated from her, even though she was physically still strapped right in front of me. What I wouldn't have given now to share a touch, or even a thought with her. All I could do was wrap my suited arms in front of her, giving her a gentle squeeze. She just held my arms against her, gently patting and rubbing my gloved hands with hers.

"Kila, your Terrian air working in there?" I now asked her by comm.

"Working fine, John," I heard her report back. "I don't need to wear the mouth mask, and the air status is even showing up on my helmet displays in here."

I just gave her suited midsection a couple gentle pats in acknowledgement, before I glanced next to me at Mike for a second with his helmet now shut. I was sure he thought Kila was a distraction for me on this mission, but I would have been thinking about her even more if I had left her behind. I just lowered my head inside my helmet in silent prayer for both of us and for all our teams.

"Watch out!" we then heard via the comm speakers in our helmets before a bright flash erupted not far from us as we approached the Ark.

"Terras call in!" I directed on the comm.

"Terra Three here . . . Terra Four here . . ." we heard the loudspeakers in our helmets respond.

"Terra Two, respond! . . . Terra Two!" I radioed, looking out our front windows.

"This is Terra Three," we heard back. "Approaching Terra Two's last position . . . I'm seeing small fragments, but that's it . . . no survivors."

"Acknowledged Three," I sighed with regret. "Continue with mission. Approach your target areas slowly, and watch your peripheries."

Making our own way through randomly moving masses and chunks of metal within the Ark's debris field as pieces banged against our ship, we slowly made our way towards our target airlock.

"I'll get you as close as I can, sir," I heard our pilot radio inside my helmet.

"Mike, you and Izumi take charge of priming Reactor One," I decided, radioing new instructions through my helmet comm. "I'll take on Unit Two. Kila will be able to help me."

"You sure, John?" Mike radioed back as he turned his helmet towards me. "We can probably blow up the Ark just fine with three of the four mains."

"Given this ship's history, would you trust all of those other three to work? Even while going critical as programmed?" I posed.

"Welcome to the Engineer Corps, Kila!" Mike radioed.

"See? You guys needed me after all!" I could hear her smiling back on the comm. I just gave her another warm squeeze from behind.

"Okay, Stewart," Mike then radioed. "This is our stop. Open the hatch please."

"Be careful," our pilot replied as the cockpit's visor now rolled up in front of us as Mike and his assistant now floated out of the cockpit and toward the airlock they were aiming for, with the aid of handheld thruster units.

"Wow, we've got serious radiation leakage around here from somewhere," Mike said on the comm as static already started to cloud his transmission. "The Geiger reading on my heads up display in here is really spiking."

"Sounds like we're going to have serious comm interference then," I replied. "Let's switch to time mode here. Keep trying the comm every once in a while, but otherwise get your job done, and return to this pick-up point by the assigned time. If you can't, find your way outside the ship near the pick-up time wherever you can and use hand rockets."

"Gotcha . . . J––n . . ." the comm speaker in my helmet replied with heavy static as the cockpit visor closed again, and our pilot gently backed our craft away and pivoted towards the airlock a quarter of the way around J Ring to drop off Kila and myself.

"Stewart, pressurize the cockpit again for a minute," I requested via my helmet's mike. "I need to teach Kila a back-up language for any emergencies with all this static."

"You can open your helmets, sir," the reply came back inside my helmet.

"Giddy," I then said to our onboard utility robot as soon as I opened my helmet. "Teach Kila and I standard sign language."

"Why?" my wife asked as her segmented visor now opened in front of her face while she donned her facemask once again.

"If our comms go out in this heavy radiation environment," I explained, "hand gestures may be our only way to communicate."

"Organic data download commencing," the small robot said from his perch on the cockpit's aft bulkhead. "Kila, don't blink."

My Terrian wife kept her large eyes wide open as twin beams of blue light from the robot's optics now streamed a compressed knowledge of that form of communication directly to her optic nerves and brain.

"Okay . . ." Kila sighed looking down in wonder as the beams from the robot ceased.

"Now you, sir," the robot continued, aiming its optics at my eyes. Suddenly, there it was . . . a full working knowledge of sign language, ready for me to use.

_You understand this?_ I now silently gestured to my wife with my hands as a test.

_Got it!_ Kila silently gestured back with a smile using her hands. _Kiss,_ her hands added.

I just moved my head in as she dropped her facemask again, while I then gave her a quick scorcher of a kiss before shutting my helmet's visor, and giving her another squeeze around her space-suited midsection from behind, hoping our pilot didn't notice.

"Here we are, sir," our pilot commed inside my helmet. "Fortunately, the area around your airlock here looks fairly clear. Radiation levels appear somewhat lower, too."

"Open the hatch and let's go Kila," I said unfastening our restraints, but then snapping a short length of tether between us.

"What? You don't trust me out in space?" she queried as her helmet now looked at the line connecting us.

"You've never been out in space before," I replied. "I don't want you drifting off. There's nothing for your tail or energy to push against out here. And if you lose your thruster, that's it. You'll just keep drifting."

"My energy can push against metal, see?" she countered as she now seemed to push herself away from the cockpit's rear bulkhead without moving any limbs.

"Okay, I was wrong . . . about that," I admitted as I now picked up her bag for her and shoved myself off, too, floating out of the cockpit over the head of our pilot.

"I'll be back at Two's assigned time," Stewart radioed as he closed the cockpit visor behind us again. "Take care, you two. I want that hot tub party later!"

"You're on, Stewart!" I smiled as I now turned with the help of my hand thruster towards the airlock hatch.

As we now moved slowly though space towards the hatch, both Kila and I briefly looked back as our fighter now withdrew away from the Ark.

"Wow . . ." my wife said, then turning and taking in the amazing views around us as we arrived at the airlock hatch. "You ever just look at all this, John?" she radioed to me.

"Could you take your bag please, Kila?" I replied, passing it to her before I set to work with a powered wrench from the tool belt I was wearing around my suit to manually open the hatch. "I've spent my life out here," I continued as the tool now slowly caused the door to open. "Including more hours of EVA or Extra-Vehicular Activity outside the ship here than I can count . . . Okay, the airlock door is open, ladies first," I gestured.

"Always such the gentleman," she smiled back on the comm. "It's why I married you."

"We better minimize the pleasantries on this main comm channel in case the others can hear us," I cautioned as I followed her into the chamber.

"Well, where's that private channel you mentioned?" she asked.

"Tell your suit's computer to switch to comm channel two, and I'll monitor both one and two," I replied. "That way you can talk about whatever you like. Computer," I then said, "monitor comm channels one and two. Set default broadcast on two."

"Compliance," I heard my suit's computer respond back. "Comm instructions carried out. Settings established."

"Kila, you hearing me on two?" I now tried as we both entered the airlock.

"Loud and clear," she replied.

"Well, you're even picking up the lingo," I admired.

"It's all been there for the taking inside your brain," she seemed to smile, patting my arm with her gloved hand.

"Well it doesn't look like there's any atmosphere on the other side of this inner airlock door," I then noted, powering up the inner airlock door panel with a mobile battery pack from my tool belt. "So, we might as well just override and open it."

I now switched to my rotary wrench to manually open this door as well, and sure enough there was just more of the vacuum of space on the other side of the door.

"Okay," I then radioed to my wife, "save your hand thruster for when you really need it and just pull your way along the hand rails here. We've got a ways to go up the spoke here to the central hub to get to Reactor Two."

"Would this be faster?" she replied as she just seemed to 'swim' quite normally along the passageway right past me, undulating her space-suited tail as usual.

"How are you . . . ? Never mind," I sighed.

"Energy pushing off metal," she reminded me as she turned around and came right back. "This place is full of it . . . works right through the suit, and no air to slow me down now. Want a 'tow'?"

"Just don't tell the rest of the guys, okay?" I sighed as I now let go of the railing and grabbed onto her waist with both hands.

"Why not?" she quipped. "They'll all want Terrian partners for their next space assignments when they hear we give great tows."

"Kila," I almost groaned.

"You're no fun in space," she continued as she now began to pull me along the passageway up the spoke towards the central hub at a fairly fast clip. "You need a good zap to lighten you up."

"Give me one when we get home," I replied as viewports and everything else just seemed to zip by. "Just don't mess up our suits' electronics out here, okay? But whoa, whoa, whoa! You're about to shoot us right past the turn to Reactor Two here! Next left."

"Hang on!" she warned as she now banked us into a hard left turn at a corridor junction, almost slamming me against the corner bulkhead. "Sorry!" she apologized as I fortunately bounced off it without hitting it too hard.

"Remember, things like momentum and inertia work a little differently up here," I cautioned.

"I've got some kind of alarm going off in my helmet," she reported.

"Me, too," I replied as I now heard a beeping sound in my helmet. "It's the Geiger radiation alarm. Tell your computer to silence it but maintain visual. Actually, I can do that for both of us if you don't want it cluttering up your view. Just tell it, 'Discontinue Geiger Alarm'. Computer, silence Geiger Alarm but maintain visual."

"Compliance," my suit's female computer voice cheerily responded.

"John, it's discontinued on my end," Kila reported as well.

"Okay, with these radiation levels, we only have a couple hours tops to work in there, but we should need far less than that," I said as I now moved to the reactor room door to manually open it. "All I need to do is attach a battery pack to power up the main panel, warm up the systems I need, remove the manual safety overrides, set the hydrogen reactant mixture at the right rate to go critical after we get clear, and we can head back out again to our pick-up point."

"Sounds easy . . . kind of," my wife commed next to me as I now opened this door as well. "What do you want me to do?"

"Maybe tow me around," I admitted. "It'd take less time than me trying to tell you where all the manual overrides are that need to be pulled. Take me over to that main panel first though," I then pointed.

"Give good tows . . . in space," she reminded me with some hopefully playful annoyance as she first towed me across the massive reactor chamber to the main control console.

I briefly looked around as we crossed. I had worked in this and the other engineering spaces for years, even decades now. I knew most every system, even every pipe I saw. These compartments had once been lit up and full of life, noise and activity. Now all of it was just dark and silent. It felt like we were working inside death itself.

We arrived at the main panel though and soon I had it back online from the mobile battery pack that I would leave attached to it. Even the holo-displays above it seemed to work fine. Too bad we were about to blow it all up. I proceeded to power up the auxiliary and then primary systems I would need, all from that battery pack, allowing them to warm to their operating temperatures again while I then turned to remove the safeties around the reactor itself.

"Ready, tow-lady?" I asked.

"For you . . ." she quietly grumbled.

"Kila, I'm sorry. I was wrong, okay?" I apologized. "You can tell the world you towed me."

"You are so easily played!" she now laughed. "And I don't even need to be touching you."

"Kila, mission," I sighed.

"Alright, alright," she now apologized. "Sorry, but I've never had this much fun and excitement before. This is all—"

"I know, new," I interjected as I grabbed hold of her waist again with both hands. "We're on a schedule here though, and those safeties gotta get pulled."

"And you said you couldn't read my mind," she playfully chided as she nonetheless now hauled me across the large room over to the cylinder-shaped reactor that filled one side of the chamber.

"It's called 'marriage'," I almost laughed. "It allows you to start predicting and anticipating a mate's behavior when you've seen it enough times. Stop here," I then said, reaching for the first red safety lever near one edge of the reactor that I had to pull.

"So I'm getting predictable," she now sighed.

"Okay, this is where husbands start to get into trouble," I replied as I finished pulling that lever. "Take me on around the edge here to the next red lever, please. And you're not getting predictable nearly as much as comfortable and nicely familiar."

"Boy, I can just keep stringing you along all day, can't I?" she warmly replied as she towed me further around the reactor.

"Hey, I take you seriously, okay? Stop here, please," I said as I let go of her to reach and pull at another handle. "I just presume that there's a problem, or a concern or hurt you have when I'm not sure about you, until you assure me there isn't. I have had some practice at being a good husband, you know. On to the next one, please," I continued as I grabbed her waist again. "But I thought Terrians didn't practice deception. You seem to be getting this 'bad girl' thing down perhaps a little too well."

"The ideas are just all right there in your mind," Kila replied as she began towing me again, " . . . and it's so much fun."

"Her playful side was what attracted me to Kaila," I reminisced. "It's what made her even more beautiful to me. Stop here."

"John, I'm sorry," Kila then apologized as we halted. "I'll stop tapping those memories if you don't want me to. They made you happy . . . I just wanted to make you happy, too."

"Kila, you are making me happy," I assured, feeling moved and giving her a quick hug around her waist from behind with my suited arms before reaching for another lever. "I just hope I'm making you happy, too."

"You are, John," she warmly replied. "I've had the best talks with you I've ever known, and so much more."

"You mean better than . . ." I said as I pulled the lever.

"Yes, better than with Jorn," she replied. "He let his energy do the talking . . . but the conversations between you and I? They're good. They really are. They're even allowing me to be glad everything happened the way it did . . . because not only do I love you, John . . . I love our marriage, aside from our one screw-up so far . . . my one screw-up."

"Kila . . ." I said as I finished pulling the lever, turning to give her a real hug, space suit or no. "It was a beautiful screw-up though, you know? It brought us even closer."

"Yeah," I heard her admit, "it has, hasn't it?"

"But I am coming to deeply love our marriage, too," I continued. "And the energy sharing with you, it's . . . it's . . ."

"Say it," she challenged.

"Okay, better than sex!" I smiled. "There, I said it!"

"John," she replied back in an oh so sultry way, "to us, that is sex."

"What about procreation then?" I wondered.

"That's procreation," she replied. "To us, they're two different things. One is the sharing of essences, of souls out of love; the other is the sharing of bodies to produce children. I can assure you, we've been sharing souls. What? You thought all this time we weren't really having sex, at least soul-wise, as a married couple?"

"Well, I did think we were a little held back in that department, since I couldn't give you energy, too," I admitted.

"Feedback, John. Feedback," she seemed to smile, gripping both sides of my helmet with her gloved hands. "When I zap you, I feel it, too. But you know, I've been lying to you in a way, even lying to myself . . . because you have been giving me energy—such a subtle, sweet energy that I didn't sense it at first. You want to know the real reason I couldn't bring myself to procreate with that other Terrian? It's because I discovered my energy _had_ changed. It wasn't pure Terrian anymore. You talk about your heart being 'Kila-shaped' . . . well, my essence had indeed become 'John-shaped'. You have an energy signature, John . . . and it is the most subtle and beautiful I've ever known. Jorn was a great and wonderful mate to me, but you . . . you're even better."

"Kila . . ." I sniffed, moved in wonder as we continued to hold each other in our space suits next to the reactor. "Ohh I want to merge souls with you some more when we get home," I sighed, squeezing her even tighter.

"We will, John. We will," my wife assured. "But let's get the job done here, and pull the rest of those safeties, so we have a home to go back to."

"My anchor, my life . . . my wife," I admired.

"And always will be," she assured, before turning around. "Grab on. Next lever coming up!"

— — — — —

Before long, we had a smooth system going together, and had all the safeties around each end of the reactor pulled. Kila was right at my arm as I then programmed the final reactant injection sequence back at the main panel.

The structures all around us suddenly quivered with a sharp jolt.

"What was that?" Kila wondered on our comm as we both looked around.

"Computer, broadcast channel one," I then urgently instructed. "Mike, Izumi . . . anyone, are you there? What's going on?"

All I got back was loud static. "Computer, broadcast channel two," I selected again. "Kila, I'm not getting any response . . . Kila?"

She was now tapping me on the arm, signing, _I can't hear you anymore._

_Electro-magnetic pulse, EMP,_ I then signed back to her. _Blocks comm signals._ _An auxiliary reactor must have blown someplace. If it was one of the mains, we wouldn't be here. Fortunately, these controls and our suits are hardened against EMP. I am setting reactant sequence, then let's go!_

I furiously keyed in the last command sequence into the panel.

_Take us out that upper exit, near the central hub,_ I then signed to her, pointing to a doorway above the one we had entered through. _I want to have a look and see if there's damage to the other reactor spaces._ I then grabbed on to Kila. Fortunately, her own energy and ability to propel herself seemed to be unaffected as she now pulled me towards that doorway. She was right—her energy was not conventional electricity. I would never doubt her on that again.

I soon opened that upper door and we emerged out into the inner hub passageway. I then looked up through the series of inward facing viewports across the Ark's central hub to see holes on the opposite side around Reactor Room Four that now had plasma fires burning out of them.

_Figures,_ I now pointed and signed with my hands and fingers in frustration as I looked up at it. _Lost that engine during the last orbit burn. God, the people in there . . . they didn't have a chance._

_Let's go,_ Kila signed back to me.

I reluctantly nodded, pointing in the direction we needed to go, and then grabbing hold of her waist as she started propelling both of us along the passageway towards the junction with the spoke passage that would lead back to the airlock pick-up point on J Ring. Suddenly, everything around us silently shook again. I looked up through the viewports to see another explosion at Reactor Room Four, with large parts from there now heading straight for us.

_GO!_ I signed frantically to Kila, pointing again where we needed to go, as she then began to propel us both along the passage to the corridor junction. Suddenly, a huge, jagged chunk of metal silently tore into the passageway ceiling right in front of us. Kila tried to stop and shove us both back with her energy as the wreckage plowed downward across the passage into the deck grates. I turned and reached behind me to avoid us both being slammed against a wall, briefly letting go of my wife as the invading mass now ricocheted in slow motion and began moving back out into the black void. Before I realized it, the wreckage had severed the tether between my wife and I, snagging Kila and sweeping her out of the passageway along with it. I pulled myself to the jagged edge of the now severed corridor, and saw her floating and spinning helplessly off into space.

"NOOO!" I violently screamed inside my helmet as without hesitation I then launched myself out of the hole at Kila, praying I would catch her.

Fortunately I now had greater momentum than she did, and to my great relief, I caught her as I passed, holding her tightly for dear life as I rotated around her to face her helmet. I remembered the emergency comm cable these suits carried as I fumbled at my waist for mine, and then plugged it into her suit's receptacle port.

"Kila!" I said. "Can you hear me?"

"John, thank the gods!" I heard her reply to my relief as I now felt her embrace me as well.

"How are you?" I urgently asked.

"I've got alarms going off all over the place in here," her voice replied with concern. Even I could hear them through the cable. "My air supply is going down, air pressure's dropping, power's dropping. One alarm says I have a leak in my suit, 'second quadrant, rear', it's saying."

"That's your back," I replied, quickly moving around her to check. "Can't see any leakage . . . wait, there's a rip. Placing my hand over it to slow it down."

"I'm getting a couple more minutes here, but that looks about it," she replied.

"Oh no," I now said, feeling around my waist.

"What?" she asked.

"My tool belt. It got ripped off me amid everything," I said. "I have nothing to fix your leak with."

"My first aid bag, it's right behind you," she said, pointing over my shoulder. I looked behind me to see it spinning off just a couple metres away.

"Hold my feet, but do not let go!" I said urgently as I turned and tried to push off her a little and reach for it, feeling the comm cable stretch to its limit from my waist as well. My outstretched hand stopped less than half a metre from Kila's medical bag and its strap as I watched it continue to spin away from us now.

"I don't have my hand thrusters," I heard her say through our cable.

"Me neither," I sighed, feeling around my suit as well. "Can you push off anything with your tail?"

"Trying," she said as she undulated her tail behind us both. "Are we moving differently?"

"No," I sighed, sensing no difference in our shared trajectory or rotation as we continued spinning slowly in open space and drifting away from the Ark, fortunately seemingly clear of any debris as well. I looked once more at her first aid bag . . . containing just what we needed to seal her suit . . . as it continued to float away. "Kila . . . pull me back," I reluctantly decided, knowing that if I tried for the bag now, I wouldn't be able to reach her again.

"Any communication?" she then asked as she reoriented me in front of her again.

"Let me try," I replied. "Computer, broadcast channel one. Mayday! Mayday! This is John and Kila Meyers. We are adrift in space and moving away from the Ark, Central Hub near Reactor Room Two. Can anyone hear us? Over."

There was nothing but static in reply.

"I repeat, Mayday! Mayday! Can anyone hear us? Over," I reiterated. "I'm getting nothing back, Kila," I sighed. "Can you hang on with me?"

"Not unless something shows up within three minutes," she said quietly.

I pressed my hand against her back even harder, twisting it around on her a little.

"Any difference?" I said.

"Three minutes, thirty seconds now," she sighed.

"Wait, my emergency umbilical cord," I remembered, unzipping a pocket on my side. "It will allow us to share power and air."

"We can't share air, John," she quietly replied.

"No, Kila . . ." I began to sniff, now dropping my hand from that pocket as the gravity of what she was telling me suddenly hit me. "You gotta hang on."

"Tell this suit that," she sadly laughed a little.

We both now held each other tightly, with me pressing my one hand as hard as I could over that tear in the back of her suit.

"I don't want to go . . ." she now sniffed. "It's just getting good with you."

"Kila . . . no," was all I could say, now putting both my hands around her back over that spot and pressing hard.

"Well, I'm back up to four minutes now," she sniffed. "Let's make 'em count."

"What do you want?" I asked, now just focused totally on her and treasuring the padded feel of her form against me at every point we touched.

"Well, I've told you the most important thing, about your energy," I could hear her tearfully reply. "This is so unfair."

"God, I want to save you," I wept.

"I wish you could," she now cried, too. "I am so wishing that."

I looked at her bag again as both we and it rotated in space. It was even further away now. For an instant, I was really mad at myself for not turning and reaching for it when I had the chance . . . but that wouldn't do us any good now. Kila and I then just held each other silently, slowly spinning together in space for a moment as the reality of what was about to happen to her sank in further with both of us.

"Kila," I sniffed now, " . . . I can't let go of you."

"I know, John," she empathized.

"No, I-I want to go with you," I continued.

"What do you mean?" she sniffed as well.

"Go across the end of life with you," I calmly decided. "We die, together . . . through a kiss. I promise I won't let go, and it'll be the last thing each of us feels. I want to do this, Kila . . . with you."

"But John, your suit's not damaged," she sadly replied. "You could still live a long life after this."

"Not without you," I calmly answered.

"Part of me wants to ask you to go on living," I heard her sniff over our emergency comm cable.

"Not without you," I repeated.

"John . . ." she hesitated.

"My heart is Kila-shaped," I sniffed.

"John, no," she tried to reply.

"We don't have time to argue," I said. "I can't argue with you now, and I do not want to live without you."

I now felt her embrace me tightly through our suits. "John . . . if you want to join me in death," she sadly hesitated, " . . . I won't refuse you. I would welcome your companionship, and love."

"I couldn't stand to just watch you die here," I tearfully decided. "I'd rip my helmet off anyway, because I couldn't stand seeing you suffocate and freeze in my arms, isolated in that suit by yourself. I want to come with you . . . to join with you forever, through a kiss."

I could hear Kila break down in tears inside her helmet as I felt her arms grip around me more tightly.

"Are those tears of sadness or joy?" I gently asked as I held her.

"Both," she quietly sniffed. "You just twist these helmets off, right?"

"Correct, a twist to the right," I gently confirmed.

"John," she wept again, before trying to recompose herself.

"It'll be alright, Kila. I'm coming with you now," I assured her, now focused on nothing but loving her. "You're not alone. We're going together, right together."

"Two minutes, thirty seconds," she then reported. "How do you want to spend them?"

"Telling you how much I love you, Kila," I wept as tears now floated around within my helmet.

"I love you so completely, too, John," she replied as we held each other and almost seemed to slowly waltz in space now. "You wanted wide open spaces, my love?" she tried to laugh. "Well, here it is."

"You are all I want, all I will ever want," I assured. "I've missed nothing with you."

"I want to touch you, John," she requested, " . . . to share thoughts and energy with you so badly."

"We're about to," I said calmly now. "It's the last thing we will know together. You are my one though, Kila . . . my one perfect, true love."

"You are my one total love in my life, too, John," she replied more calmly as well. "Thank you for coming with me through this though. I'd be so scared otherwise," she nervously laughed a little.

"It's alright," I soothed her, squeezing her tightly while my hands remained in place over the tear in her suit. "It's alright."

"You're with me," she tearfully marveled some more, " . . . you're going right with me. I couldn't ask for more than that. One minute, thirty seconds."

"We'll have anywhere from ten to twenty seconds of consciousness once our heads are open to space," I noted. "Then we'll start to freeze while the fluids inside us also start to boil from the lack of pressure."

"Sounds like fun," she sniffed with a slight smile in her voice now. "As long as my lips freeze to yours, I'm happy. Sixty seconds, let's get it on. Oh, and I'll give you a surge of voltage I've always wanted to, but never dared. I'll try and black us both out okay? So we'll feel nothing."

"That's my Kila," I smiled. "I'm ready to start this journey with you. I love you, now and forever."

"I love you, too, John," she agreed. "Now and forever. Just think, no more barriers between us. We'll breathe, even make love, with total freedom."

"Can't wait now," I smiled within my helmet.

"Let's go," she said with a smile as well. "Each other's helmets on three," she then coached as we both took hold of one another's helmets.

"Wait," I then said, pausing both of us. "The last thing I want to say, and to hear with you, is 'I love you.'"

"Yeah," she said with such joy in her voice.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?" I hesitated again.

"I'll tell you on the other side now," she said. "Give us both something to look forward to here."

"Kila . . ." I couldn't help weeping with bittersweet joy.

"Thirty seconds of air left in here," she said, beginning to cough a little.

"Okay, let's do it," I calmly replied, not wanting her to begin slowly suffering and getting a grip on myself as my hands gripped her helmet.

"Okay," she confirmed as she coughed again and began gasping a little.

"One . . ." we then slowly said together, "two . . . three . . . I love you . . ."

We then twisted each other's helmets and released them. Alarms went off in my helmet but then soon faded out to silence as air rushed upwards out of our suits past each of our faces. I then saw Kila's round head and face again, right before me in space. The light of the Terrian sun brightly illuminated her features as we gently turned. She was so beautiful to me, so very beautiful. I couldn't help smiling at her. She was smiling, too, so joyful at seeing my face again as well. Slowly, silently, we took hold of each other again as our helmets started drifting away, and brought our lips together in the sweetest kiss I had ever known. For the first time, we were truly equal. Neither of us could breathe out here.

As our faces began to touch, there was that energy of hers . . . that delicious energy I loved so much. I kissed her hard this time, the hardest I ever had. I began to give her one more sensual massage on the back of her head and neck with my gloved hand, as I knew she loved. I even breathed into her mouth this time, as my nose tried to draw in the vacuum of space like it was air. I didn't care about the loss of feeling in my ears, the growing pain in my brain, nothing.

I sensed Kila quickly removing her suit's gloves as her arms encircled my neck. Her bared hands then beginning to possessively roam across the back of my head and neck as I could feel my hair, made sweaty by the warmth of my helmet and the humidity of my breath, now start turning to ice. I now joined her, removing the glove off at least my left hand, before that hand gripped the back of her head and neck hard while the other gripped her back and held her suited body against mine.

As our mouths continued to move hard against each other, our tongues reached together as well, first tentatively caressing, and then seeming to hook around one another in their own unique embrace. I squeezed and pulled my tongue hard around her hooked tongue, and she did, too. It was an incredible French kiss now, one that made me smile even more amid our all-consuming passion. I was savoring all of it, every single last sensation.

Kila's energy then washed through our kiss and our bared hands into me as I felt the oxygen begin to leave my lungs.

_Do it,_ I now thought to her as I felt frost now stinging my cheeks. _Pour it on, Kila._

She then began surging her voltage powerfully through both of us as our faces began to feel like they were fusing together. I was now seeing a kaleidoscope of bright and changing colors inside my mind as her voltage began to feel like it was sweeping me out of myself. It wasn't painful . . . it was bliss, a consuming ecstasy that rocked me to my core.

Even though we were both on our way towards death, beginning to suffocate and freeze in the icy vacuum of space . . . there was nothing but the deepest love and joy between the two of us now. I could not be happier with Kila than I was in this moment. I knew that soon, even our bodies would be swept away, hopefully vaporized in the coming devastating explosion of the Ark's main hydrogen fusion reactors. Kila and I just wouldn't be around to see it . . . or perhaps we might in a sense, from a safer realm.

_Bring it on!_ I eagerly thought as I now welcomed death with my mate.

Suddenly, a green light began to surround us.

_Heaven,_ I thought as we remained locked in our kiss . . . our mouths, tongues and hands now becoming stilled. _Kila, we're making it to heaven . . . Kila . . ._


	12. Chapter 12

I now saw a bright light over me. It seemed like a surprisingly familiar bright light. Things began to come into focus.

"Commander . . . John . . ." I now heard. Somehow, I didn't think God would be addressing me by my Earth Force rank. I blinked my eyes, amazed that I still had eyes to blink.

"John . . ." I heard again.

"Uhhhh . . ." I moaned in a whisper, amazed that I could do that as well. Heaven wasn't quite seeming to be what I had expected. I felt surprisingly weak for one thing. But the most important thing was where was my love, my one? Where was Kila?

"Ki-la . . ." I now murmured.

"Kila's here, too," I heard. "She's in surgery."

"Sur—" I now murmured, my eyes opening more widely, and looking around. Of course . . . I was in the Medical Bay again, this time in the recovery ward. Which meant . . . I was still alive, and on Terra!

"Easy, easy," I heard. A Terrian healer now hovered over me, looking at me closely and caressing a hand across my head to sense my essence. My wife was right, being touched by a healer was far better than being poked and probed by a robot. It had become another step in the integration of our two peoples. The Terrians were now taking over and personalizing the medical care for both our species, while we shared our more advanced healing treatments and technologies with them. Spiritual essence and hard machine were now becoming balanced, even harmonized.

"Kila should be joining you, right here beside you, any moment," the healer assured me.

"She's . . . alive?" I weakly asked.

"Yes, John," the healer confirmed as he gave me a hypospray injection. "She's alive."

"How?" I asked. "We die . . . together, in space . . ."

"Your fighter found you just as you took your helmets off," the healer explained. "You both were captured in a force field, which was flooded with heat and oxygen . . . fortunately for you, unfortunately for her. But here she is now," he said moving aside as my Kila, my precious Kila, was moved on a mobile bed next to mine.

"Move us closer . . . please," I murmured, reaching a hand for her. I took her hand in mine. Even unconscious, there was that energy of hers again. Ohh, nothing had ever felt so good to me in my life.

"Kila . . ." I whispered.

Her eyes began to slowly open. Then it hit me . . . she wasn't wearing a mask!

"Help," I whispered weakly almost in panic. "Help! Mask! For Kila!"

"It's alright," the healer assured, laying a hand on me again with his own mask firmly in place over his mouth. "It's alright. She breathes oxygen now, through artificial lungs genetically engineered and grown by your technology. They allow her to breathe in an Earth environment while still metabolizing what her body needs to live."

"No . . ." I now whispered, slowly shaking my head, feeling that was just not right. "Kila . . ."

"John," she finally turned her head, beginning to smile towards me.

"Kila, you're breathing . . . oxygen," I sighed, amazed.

"My gift . . . to you," she whispered.

"No . . ." I softly replied with a growing regret, now rolling my body over towards her to caress the side of her face.

"They said I needed new lungs . . . while I was on life support," she continued, looking at me. "I asked to breathe your air. They said yes."

"Kila . . . you give me too much," I whispered to her. "You can't live in your world anymore . . . breathe your air."

"You are my world now," Kila assured in her own whisper, reaching to caress the side of my face with her three-fingered hand. I gently put my hand on hers as tears uncontrollably fell from my eyes.

"Kiss me," she then softly asked. "Make this . . . worthwhile."

I then reached to give her perhaps the most gentle and loving kiss a husband has ever shared with a wife, in neighboring medical beds.

"Keep me warm," she quietly requested.

I strained to move the rest of myself all the way onto her bed as she gently turned and I gently took her into my arms from behind, making sure to get her 'ponytail' just right across my shoulder. I then brought the blanket from my bed over both of us, being very careful to keep my arms and hands away from her chest area where her surgery had likely been performed.

"You two really are inseparable," I then heard a familiar voice say near us. "I even had to carefully thaw your mouths apart once we got you back onboard."

"We've earned it, Mike," I quietly replied as I just savoured my wife's presence.

"I'm sorry we had to subject you to a pure Earth environment though, Kila," my friend apologized as he now stood next to us along with Sharon. "We had no Terrian air source with us, and your air supply was exhausted. Healers from here told me by comm to immobilize you in a stasis force field soon after I separated you from John. It just wasn't soon enough though as you both started breathing again while we were frantically resuscitating you on the deck of the fighter's multi-purpose bay."

"Should have just left us together . . . immobilized both of us," my wife quietly sighed as she rested against me. "But Mike, you've given me a gift . . . the chance to breathe with my husband now. I will always be grateful," she added, now reaching a hand for him.

"Whoa!" Mike said as he took Kila's hand, feeling her appreciative energy for the first time, before he recoiled and let go. "That's some energy! Y-You live with that . . . all the time?"

"This?" I sighed, casually relaxing against her and feeling the same energy. "It's one of her milder voltages. You should feel her when she really turns it up."

"Shhhh . . . that's just for you, John," my wife smiled.

"Sorry," I explained to my friends, "Terrian bedroom secrets."

Kila just quietly laughed. I marveled feeling and seeing her take little gasps of oxygen now amid her laughing. As much as I relished her joy, my thoughts briefly drifted to others.

"Team Four . . . we lost them, too?" I asked Mike.

"Yes," he sadly confirmed. "Terra Four's pilot came back though. But we did it, John . . . we blew up the Ark, even vaporized the debris field, just as you predicted."

"Must have been quite a show," I sighed.

"I was too busy to really see it," he replied, " . . . first making sure you two were cared for, and then I was watching telemetry and sensor readings in Elder Control from the three primed main reactors when it happened, making sure they were going critical as programmed. I had to, having been drafted by Chen and Doron as Acting Earth Force Commander."

"Which you still are for now," I added. "Kila and I are on medical leave."

"I was afraid you were gonna say that," he quipped. "I was just glad I had a flight officer under me, as well as Elder Control calling the shots around the planet, as I have no idea how to command fighter and bomber squadrons. But you were right, John. If you both hadn't primed Unit Two, the destruction wouldn't have been complete."

"And we would not be here," I heard another familiar voice add.

"Doron . . . sir," I responded with more than a little embarrassment at being caught by a superior basically snuggling with my wife in bed . . . a medical ward bed no less.

"Healing a mate in the Terrian way," he admired.

"Really?" I wondered.

"Really," Kila quietly assured, glancing my way in my arms from in front of me as we lay on our sides together, quietly surging some loving energy towards me. For the first time, she now seemed to reach into my mind, drawing me closer to her as I found I couldn't help but kiss her, long and slowly on the side of her face, embracing her a little more tightly as we lay together, each dressed in human hospital gowns. I tried to resist, half-heartedly . . . but I simply couldn't, and kind of didn't want to. Kila's left hand caressed my bared right arm wrapped around her, sending me its own gentle energy as well. I could almost feel tissues and even cells within each of us begin to regenerate.

"I think we should allow them to heal together," I heard Doron advise Mike and Sharon. "Although we would do it in private at home, as the connection and sharing becomes very deep. How your kind could expect to heal with a mate in such an open, public setting like this . . ."

"Uhh . . . we'll see you two later," I heard Mike smile as he and Sharon turned and left along with Doron. It was all I could do to gently raise a hand and just waive at them as they departed.

_Kila, I'd appreciate control of myself here,_ I thought to her with just a little irritation as I couldn't stop myself from continuing to kiss the side of her face and head.

"John . . . would you heal me?" Kila quietly asked with a sigh beside me, just melting away any resolve I had within me.

_Heal, my Kila,_ I now surrendered in thought to her as we then settled even closer right in that recovery ward bed. We touched the sides of our heads together, brain against brain, entering into a profound and shared meditation. I allowed myself to be guided to kiss her again, gently rolling my head against hers.

_Heal me with your touch,_ I then sensed from her for the first time.

_Kila?_ I asked in my thoughts, reopening my eyes as I remained with my head against hers.

_You heard me, John,_ I felt her reply to my unending joy as I then pulled my head back and gazed at her with awe.

"Know my mind," she said as she looked at me with half-opened eyes, "as you heal my body . . . we've found a way now."

I just touched my forehead to hers again. _Yes . . ._ I movingly thought to her. My eyes teared up as I began to know her world of thoughts for the first time.

We entered a deep, meditative state together. I felt her take my right hand with her hands and guide it under her gown. She then began slowly tracing my fingers along her front, right over her new lungs and the closed and fused incisions through which they had been implanted. I felt a restoring force pass through my hand as she began to breathe more deeply.

I marveled for a moment. Kila was now channeling energy through me, allowing me to heal her, as a Terrian would. Knowing me as always, she turned her head to look at me as I now raised mine again to gaze at her for a moment, before she wrapped her right hand around the back of my head and brought our foreheads back together.

_Yes, John,_ she confirmed with her mind in answer to my unspoken question as our eyes filled each other's vision. _You are healing me. I couldn't do this by myself. We are one now . . . with my energy flowing within you, you are part Terrian. You are even part of me now, as your DNA and mine together provided the template for my new lungs. That connects us more deeply._

_Kila . . ._ I thought to her with awe.

I didn't care whether it was proper or not as I now kissed and held her without reservation, feeling more healing energy surging through my hand and fingers towards her, even through my entire body. I could sense a field, an aura now enveloping both of us, as I surrendered to it.

_Open your essence, John,_ I felt Kila echo. _Allow it to merge with mine._

I could feel myself begin to reach beyond my body and enfold her, as she enfolded me . . . blending, intertwining with me. The healer who had been tending to me a little while ago passed by again, but I wasn't seeing him with my eyes. This time I could sense him just nodding approvingly at me, at both Kila and I, before he continued on his rounds. What we were generating together was that powerful.

_John,_ Kila now echoed throughout my being, _focus_ _your mind, your entire essence on me. No questions . . . just acceptance . . ._

_Kila . . ._ I responded with all that I was as with her energy in me I now surged my greater self around her.

_Yes, John,_ she encouraged in echoes,_ yes . . ._

I just followed her now into a deep, healing energy and union while our bodies rested and healed together. I had no idea for how long Kila and I were like this, nor did I care. As our mortal forms gradually recovered though, my connection with Kila slowly diminished, from profound communion to mere sleep. I eventually woke beside her, feeling regret. The ward was dimly lit and quiet around us. A hand then caressed my arm.

"As our shells, our bodies, heal and are strengthened, our abilities of essence and spirit fade," Kila softly said, sharing my regret. "The holes injury and sickness allow us to reach through shrink. I read and studied this truth as I became a healer, even experienced it in healing others. But I had never known it myself before, as I was never sick or injured with Jorn, nor he with me. Both our essences were strong, which made our shells strong, too."

"Before you and I experienced it, I had been afraid of death though," she continued, "because it meant separation for me . . . from you, from everything. But once we started to go together however, I never knew such joy. We've had a preview of heaven, John . . . especially as our bodies healed while they were weakened, allowing our essences out . . . to play. Think you can stand more mortal life with me now though?" Kila asked, turning her head a little towards me. "Until we die, again?"

"With you?" I gently replied, now looking at her as I drew her into a slightly tighter embrace. "I think I can handle it."

We kissed deeply once more . . . passionately, slowly, even hooking our tongues around each other again. This time though we both breathed in through our nostrils and exhaled into each other's mouths. I couldn't remember tasting it in space or anywhere else . . . but Kila's breath now tasted sweet to me, warm and sweet. It was a nice contrast to her spicy energies, and made me kiss her all the more. She was perfect to me now.

Finally, my mate and I allowed our kiss to gently end, briefly smiling at each other before we resettled close together and faded back to sleep in the dimly lit ward. As we did, I realized that Kila had given me an ultimate gift this time with her choice to breathe my air, our air now . . . to almost give up being Terrian. It was something I didn't think I could ever repay her for.

All I could do was treasure her now, just love her.

— — — — —

"How are you doing this morning?" I asked as I brought hot morning nifron to my beloved in bed.

"Wonderful," Kila sighed as she stretched under the covers, taking in a deep breath of the air we now shared together in our upstairs bedroom back at home some days later. I then gave her another reason to breathe deeply, through a warm kiss.

"Here, let me help you sit up against me," I invited as I shed my bathrobe and settled back into bed with her.

"You know, I actually liked the view in space better," she decided, glancing out the big window beyond the foot of our bed as we curled up together under the quilt and I passed her favorite morning beverage to her.

"Always reaching for something more," I smiled, then giving her a gentle squeeze.

"I have what I want," Kila said, looking back at me. "Right here. Okay, what is it?" she then asked as I looked at her.

"You know what it is," I noted.

"I want to hear you say it anyway," she requested. "It's what sets what I have with you apart from what I shared with Jorn."

"I am so grateful now," I gladly confessed aloud, "for your gift to me here. No mask, no barrier, no curtain or wall at all between us anymore. I could still feel guilty about that . . . but having died with you, and yet being given this second chance, this second life anyway . . . I am just relishing every moment of what we share now. I will never forget you counting down our life together in space by one-minute increments. Time had never seemed to rich, so full to me, as those minutes, and then seconds, did. I was ready to go with you, right then. I still am. But now . . . we get all this, too."

Kila now just tearfully closed her eyes and rested herself against me, basking in the quiet energy of my love I was giving her. I was even feeling it myself this morning.

But it wasn't morning for us now until I did one thing as I touched my forehead to hers.

_I love you,_ I thought to her.

_And I love you,_ she thought back to me.

_I could never, ever do this with a human mate,_ I telepathed to her.

"And I wouldn't talk out loud as much like this with a Terrian mate," she said, pulling her head back a little as she gazed at me. "Enjoy some nifron with me, my mate," she invited, holding the wooden cup up to my lips.

I just smiled, looking at her gratefully as she gave me a sip, before she finished the cup herself and then laid it aside as we quietly rested some more close together on our bed. I just had to shift a little however so that at least the sides of our foreheads touched. I couldn't get enough of her thoughts now. The private world of Kila's mind was utterly incredible to me. I could feel her smiling though, even looking at me with her eyes as I touched various thoughts in her mind. I knew she was indulging me on this.

_We do have a couple things to take care of today,_ she mentally reminded me.

"I know," I sighed as I now looked at her.

— — — — —

"We name this community garden and greenhouse," Kila announced, dressed in her blue Councilor's suit as she floated in a hover chair while I held a pair of large, old-fashioned ribbon-cutting scissors beside her, "in honour of a dedicated botanist, who was a hero to humans and Terrians everywhere for having fought, in her own way, for the life that was, and is, here. So we now dedicate . . . the Kaila Simpson Meyers Gardens."

I was so profoundly moved that Kila had to reach and help me cut the ribbon at the front gates as everyone applauded around us. Humans and Terrians then began to roam the grounds among plots of vegetables, flowers and other examples of Earth plant life that were now growing on a new world. I chose to carry Kila as she guided us to a courtyard within the gardens in front of the greenhouse.

"That way," she encouraged, pointing as I cradled her in my arms. "Just a little further."

We approached the greenhouse now, and came upon a small, white pedestal fountain. Its waters burbled quietly in front of a bronze plaque that was mounted on an exterior wall of the greenhouse in between two sets of doors . . . a plaque that had both a name with a story beneath, and a face, that were very familiar to me.

"Here she is, John," Kila said as we now stopped and looked at the plaque together. "Kaila is right here . . . watching over her gardens."

I had to bury my face against the side of Kila's head as I held her.

"Now you have a place to visit her," my second wife gently encouraged as her arms remained draped around my neck while one hand now supportively rubbed the back of my head with understanding.

_We almost joined her out there,_ I tearfully thought to Kila as I kept my forehead pressed against her head _. . . kept her company._

_Space was all she knew, John,_ Kila comforted me with her mind. _Let part of her remain out there, and let the rest of her be here. _"Let her rest now," my wife now said aloud, "where she is . . . there," she noted, looking up at the sky, "here," as she now looked at the plaque, "and here," she finished, laying a hand on my heart."

"That you would share me with her," I sniffed.

"It's part of loving you," Kila assured. "A part I am honoured to share, with both you, and her."

"We need to find Jorn for you now," I said, trying to smile.

"That's part of our other appointment," Kila noted. "Don't worry though," she assured as I looked at Kaila's plaque one more time. "Kaila will be here . . . but she's over there, too."

Before we left though, Kila shifted her weight a little, gripping me tighter with her right arm around my shoulders as she now took my left hand in hers. She then guided us as we both touched Kaila's plaque with our left hands.

"Together," Kila gently said. "All of us . . . always."

I was moved beyond words again as Kila gave me a gentle kiss.

— — — — —

We both just decided to leave her hover chair behind at the gardens as I then carried my wife's still light form in my arms several blocks towards the middle of the circular habitat, where a large memorial was ready to be dedicated. This was one project that the Terrians had particularly wanted to work together with us on.

"The fallen we remember both saved this world and all of us now here, and laid the foundation for this community," President Chen noted as he stood on the memorial's black steps with First Elder Doron.

"_And this, along with the battle legacy outside this community,"_ Doron continued in Terrian, "_are now the roots, and the core, of the harmony both our peoples now share together on this world . . . our common home._"

My regular pilot, Stewart Stanton, and the young Terrian, Mala, who had originally reached out to us with Doron in the aftermath of the battle, then cut another ribbon with the same pair of scissors my wife and I had used . . . practically with the same emotion I had with Kila earlier. Terrians and humans then moved forward and climbed some steps to a large black oval pedestal supporting a tall bronze statue of a hero to both our peoples. I didn't know him, but I and everyone else were grateful for what he did. All of us began searching among the writing along the curved wall of that pedestal. My wife and I first paused as we found the names of the seven team members we had lost on our recent mission to the Ark, their names having been just engraved by laser into their own section of stone only the day before.

"You and I came really close to having our names added here," I noted as we looked at this panel of the memorial together.

"You mind being on this side of that wall?" Kila knowingly asked as she now looked at me.

"I just wish these other people were on this side of the wall, too," I quietly replied.

"I know," my wife soothed, giving me a gentle kiss on the cheek. We both then gently drew our heads together, directly sharing our mixed even conflicted feelings at having survived the mission that these compatriots of ours had not . . . and that unlike them, we were able to love as we were, too.

As we kept our eyes closed and our foreheads together as I cradled her in my arms while we stood in front of that one memorial panel, the swirl of feelings and emotions finally crystalized down to just two thoughts between us however.

_John_ she thought to me.

_Kila_ I thought to her.

If we were permitted no other thoughts, not a word more than each other's names the entire rest of our lives, just meditating on my mate's beautiful name alone would have been all I could ever want. It was funny in a way. Kila and I had been married several months; but only now did it feel like our honeymoon was truly beginning.

"John," my wife finally encouraged aloud, breaking our shared meditation, "we have some other names to find here . . . a couple of other people to see."

"Yeah," I agreed, trying to recompose myself. "But I can't get enough of this with you now."

"I know," she gently smiled as I then began walking, carrying her further along the wall that commemorated all the fallen of the Battle for Terra . . . human and Terrian, civilian and warrior, together.

As we walked alongside the wall, our eyes scanned the names written on it. Human names were written in English, Terrian names in Terrian, all interspersed and arranged in the ascending alphabetical order of each language. I paused briefly as I saw my predecessor's name . . . the man who had sparked, even started the battle . . . right there along with everyone else. Even dead, he was one human being I had come to truly loathe for what he had done. Many humans had wanted his name left off the memorial, even erased from our history now.

"He is a reason behind the harmony we now know," Doron had gently countered during a debate over this as the Earth Council and Eldership had met to formulate plans for this joint human-Terrian memorial. "His actions led to what we now share, even if he did not intend them to. So my people ask that his name be included along with all the other fallen. No one should be left out."

Even Kila, having been victimized through near suffocation by what this man had tried to do, voted on the Council in favor of including his name on the memorial. But now, even though I stared at it engraved there on the stone in front of me, I just can't say or write his name, or forgive him . . . not yet.

"Let's keep going," my wife encouraged me.

"Yeah," I sighed as my feet began to move under us again. I found this memorial both opening up raw wounds within me, yet also knitting them closed in a healing way at the same time. But maybe that was my Terrian partner . . . she did have her hand resting against the skin of my neck as I carried her.

Then, there they were. Perhaps appropriately, both Jorn's and Kaila's names were right next to each other in adjacent columns. Kila and I initially smiled at each other upon seeing that irony.

"Move me closer, please," she requested before I knelt down and allowed her to lean and touch her head against her beloved former mate's name, closing her eyes as she did. At first I watched her, but then looked alternately down and then at Kalia's name, wanting to give Kila at least some privacy. I briefly looked along the wall to see other Terrians quietly doing the same thing though . . . touching their heads to their loved ones' names, their eyes closed. I then felt a hand at the back of my head, gently urging me closer to the wall. The letters spelling out Kaila Simpson Meyers began to blur as I touched my forehead and nose to them. I closed my eyes as well. I didn't pray or try to think anything as I did this, but I felt acceptance and closure now. I felt peace.

But then I felt a kiss . . . on my cheek. I reopened my eyes and turned my head as Kila drew me into a tight embrace, encircling my neck and head with her arms and hands as she now kissed me deeply on the lips. Even though it seemed odd, I didn't resist, surrendering instead to her as we kissed right in front of our former mates' names.

"Why?" I softly asked her as we ended our kiss and looked at each other while I cradled her.

"He died, so I could continue to do this . . . live, and love," she replied. "I wanted to show him that I appreciate his final, lasting gift to me, and show your wife that I will take good care of you as well."

I didn't know what to say to that, except to look at her with gratitude. Kila just gently smiled as she stroked my head with a hand though. Moving closer again, she took my head in both her hands and brought our foreheads together as we closed our eyes. For the first time, she began sharing her memories with me of her life that had been with Jorn. I saw him, I heard him, I even sensed his thoughts . . . through her. Kila then tapped and gently brought my memories of Kaila and I into our shared consciousness. Both our memories . . . the images, sounds and sensations . . . all seemed to blend together into a harmonious whole.

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced.

— — — — —

I found myself slowly returning to reality as we approached our home again a short while later with Kila still in my arms. Our home . . . it was a wonderful thought all by itself, a dream come true.

"I forgot your chair over at the gardens," I sighed as I carried her in through our front door.

"No rush. We'll get it eventually," my wife assured. "I prefer your arms anyway."

I now just stood in the hallway between the front door and our kitchen and family room, looking at her as I held her.

"Tell me," she gently invited.

"This is the only other thing I feel guilty about," I confessed sadly.

"That I can't float anymore, because the oxygen I breathe is heavier than Terrian air?" she responded knowingly as she caressed my face. "Do you know what a joy it is to be carried by you around our house now . . . all the time?"

I just closed my eyes as we held each other tightly.

_I want this,_ she assured me in thought as our heads touched again. _I want it._

We held each other for several minutes like that, just lost in each other once more.

"John," Kila finally suggested, pulling her head back slightly from me, "there's something I would like to share with you now . . . it's time."

"What?" I asked with a slightly intrigued smile.

"Take us into my office, next to your study, would you?" she requested as I began walking us towards a side alcove that contained doorways to our respective professional and private rooms off the main hall. "It's in the closet, off to the right," she added, continuing to guide me.

"Is there anything I'm not supposed to be seeing in here?" I asked as we entered her home office for the first time since we had come home from recovering together in the Medical Bay.

"No, but thanks for asking," she smiled as she glanced up towards the top of her private closet. "Now with you carrying me around though, I won't be able to have any secrets from you."

_You don't anyway, I warmly thought to her, briefly touching my forehead to hers._

Kila laughed at that before we shared another kiss. "It's that package on the top shelf in there," she said, looking to the top of her already open closet.

I boosted her up in my arms a little higher as she reached for a medium-sized, thin rectangular package wrapped with brown paper, and which had four rounded bumps along its top.

"Okay, I'm curious," I said as she brought it down onto her lap as we both looked at it.

"Let's open it together on our couch," she suggested.

"What's the occasion?" I wondered as I walked us both back to the central hallway through our house, past our kitchen with its island counter and bar, and into our living area.

"We're a family now," she replied as I carried her. "It's something that happens between Terrian partners a while after their wedding, usually with the arrival of their first child, but I didn't wait for that with Jorn. I just loved him too much, as I love you now. And since we can't have a child ourselves, and have chosen not to by other means for now, it just feels like it's time to unveil our monala . . . what you would call a family tableau."

"Show me," I invited as I sat us both down on our sofa.

"Open it with me," she responded as we turned and began unwrapping the paper off of it.

"Kila . . ." I sighed, now feeling deeply touched.

"John, this is our family," she said, moving closer and admiring it with me as it sat on her lap. It was a wooden stand. Mounted at its center were two removable wooden figures of Kila and myself, gently smiling. Mine was about eighteen centimetres high, dressed in a carved version of my uniform, fortunately without the hat though, and Kila's was slightly shorter, dressed in one of her bodysuits.

"These are very accurate," I admired, picking up my own figure and turning it in my free hand, while keeping an arm around her, before putting my figure back in its place on the wooden stand. "You make them?"

"Thanks," she replied, gratified. "I can do many things, but not this. We have monala carvers, Terrians who devote themselves to this, like I do to healing. We just transfer memories of family members we want carved to the carvers through touch, and they do the rest."

"But this, Kila . . ." I sighed, as I now picked up the figure to the right of mine as they faced us. It wasn't of Kila however . . . but of my first wife, Kaila, depicted in the worksuit I'd seen her in so many times, just as I remembered.

"I couldn't let Jorn's figure go," Kila admitted as she now picked up his wooden figure on the other side of her own, " . . . or just store it away, never to see daylight again. He is still part of me . . . just as I've sensed Kaila is a part of you. It didn't feel right for me to keep and display a figure of Jorn here, without you having one of Kaila next to yours, where she belongs."

"So you gave a carver my memories of Kaila," I noted, continuing to look at my first wife's figure.

"Yes, John," Kila gently confirmed. "But only enough routine moments with her clothed like this for him to carve from . . . nothing personal or intimate. Maybe I should have asked, but I wanted to surprise you, since you were unaware of this Terrian tradition."

"It's alright," I reassured her, feeling the mixed emotions Kaila's figure was bringing out in me, before I set it back in its place next to mine.

"So, this is our monala," Kila noted, moving closer beside me, " . . . one I am very proud to display, for both us and to everyone who visits our home."

I looked at Kila for a moment with a gentle smile of gratitude, before I moved to kiss her. We then both looked at the figures on her lap again.

"These are very powerful . . . very moving," I noted.

"That's why most every Terrian home has them," she said as we continued looking at them together. "It's a way we have to remind us that family is always with us, always watching over us . . . no matter what."

"So, where do we put our monala?" I asked.

"How about on that mantle?" Kila suggested, turning to look at it above our fireplace. "They can see everything that goes on from there, even off to the side out in our back yard."

"You sure you want them to see what could wind up happening in our hot tub?" I wondered with a smile.

"Yep!" she replied as we both laughed.

"Okay," I agreed, now picking up Kila as she held our family monala, and then walking us both over to our fireplace mantle. I watched as she placed the holder and its figures at the exact center, making sure it was set just right.

"There," she said with satisfaction, "we're a family now."

"Yes we are," I agreed as we shared another kiss in front of the figures.

"John," she then warmly hinted, "I'm feeling just a little cool here."

"I should not have said 'hot tub' should I?" I sighed with another smile.

"Ohh yes you should have," she replied.

"And I thought I was nuts about hot tubs once," I gently chuckled as I looked at her.

"I just like warmth," she smiled, "all the time now. After the cold of space, could you blame me?"

"I couldn't," I assured as I glanced at our monala and its four figures one more time, before I carried Kila upstairs to our bedroom to get us both changed.

"Just help me into my white nightdress," she requested as I set her down on the corner of our bed.

"Your nightdress?" I wondered, before I began to connect the dots. "You're gonna be bad out there again, aren't you?" I smiled.

"Shhhh . . ." she just smiled in reply as we helped each other change.

— — — — —

Soon I was placing my Terrian version of a Roman goddess into the hot tub in our back yard.

"I am sooo glad I can sink further into water now," Kila sighed as she leaned back in the tub, relishing the warm waters bubbling around her. "See? My handicap has its benefits."

I quietly smiled, just watching her for a moment as I leaned and rested on my elbows at the side of the tub.

"We're gonna have to add a trellis of grape vines and a tiled patio around this tub," Kila decided as she continued to relax with her eyes closed. "Then we'll have our villa come to life, right here."

"My next home project," I assured her.

"Why aren't you in the tub?" Kila now asked opening her eyes and looking at me.

"Because you just look so good in that nightdress," I admired, " . . . especially wet."

"Why don't you enjoy me in it a little closer then?" my wife smiled. "Got some _really_ good voltage to go along with it. But ditch what you're wearing," she decided. "I don't want anything impeding our full circuit."

"Yes, my electrical engineer," I smiled as I just shed the t-shirt and shorts I was now wearing, and jumped in with a splash before the neighbors around us noticed. "Ohhh," I sighed as soon as my head reemerged above the warm waters. "I am already feeling you, even from across the tub."

"Feel this," she said turning up her voltage, almost paralyzing me again as she now swam over to me and took total control, shedding her nightdress in the water as she gracefully moved.

"Me and my mermaid," I happily sighed as she now took my quivering form into her arms.

"I'm feeling seriously electric eel today," she smiled. "Ready for some sizzle?"

"Zap me good," I sighed.

"Ah John, there you are," we heard a voice say as it came around the back of our house. "You're not answering your commlink. Can I see you?"

"Can it wait, Mister President?" I sighed without looking his way. "My healer was about to give me a needed treatment after our strenuous morning of official duties here."

"A long and deep treatment," my mate assured, still holding me as we gazed at each other.

"One of these days, you two are gonna wear out your status as heroes . . . and your extended medical leave," Chen sighed. "Successfully blowing up the Ark, preventing a mass calamity, and almost dying in space will only get you so far."

"Your Terrian date, and my Firehouse Chili, will be here tonight, at six," I replied without taking my eyes off of Kila.

"That will get you farther. Alright, see you later," he smiled as he now turned around and left.

"Now, where were we?" I sighed in my wife's arms.

"I was about to go all 'eel' on you," she reminded me with a kiss.

"Just keep my head above water as you prey upon me," I requested.

"Ohh, I intend to," she assured.

"Zap me," I said.

Love had never, ever, felt so good.

_Finish_

PLANET THREAT


End file.
